Distant Neighbours: China and Europe

This study covers forty years of China's relations with Western and Eastern Europe. Its approach is essentially historical: sucessive phases of the relationship have been analysed with a particular focus on the internal as well as external determinants that contributed to the movement of Chinese foreign policy from one phase to the other. The book is not based exclusively on official documents, since these are either scarce, or often hide or reveal very little of the intentions, motivations or even the policies of China, but draws also on information provided by the media, memoirs written by different personalities, and off-the-record interviews conducted with Chinese and European personalities who were directly or indirectly involved in Sino-European relations.