The visit today by China's Prime Minister, Mr Zhu Rongji, to the European Commission in Brussels marks an important first prime ministerial visit for the 25-year EU-China relationship.
A measure of its seriousness is the long list of those accompanying Mr Zhu, including the Foreign Minister, Mr Tang Jiaxuan, the governor of the People's Bank of China, the vice-presidents responsible for trade and economic planning, and the head of the state's bureau for restructuring.
Mr Zhu's European tour culminates here for discussions on a wide range of mutual interests ranging from Chinese WTO accession, at the top of the list, to the EU-China human rights dialogue and Taiwan. He has packed six countries into 17 days: Bulgaria, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Italy and Belgium, in addition to the EU headquarters.
Britain and France were not included because Mr Zhu had visited them soon after becoming Prime Minister in 1998.
Europe is a crucial diplomatic battleground because the EU's friendship and support are essential to Beijing's effort to thwart Washington's alleged attempt to construct a "unipolar world order". And some senior Chinese officials at the usually "pro-West" Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Co-operation, according to the South China Morning Post, are convinced that Americans and Europeans have colluded in forcing Beijing to make the maximum number of WTO-related concessions.
The EU-China relationship has been upgraded in recent years with the EU keen to exploit the commercial advantages of a Chinese economy that is opening up to the world. Trade was worth some €54 billion in 1998 with the EU going from a trade surplus in the early 1980s to a deficit of €24 billion in the same year.
China is now the EU's third largest trade partner after the US and Japan but its share of inward investment, at €4.5 billion or nine per cent of the total, is seen as very disappointing and reflecting, EU officials maintain, serious market access barriers.
Hence the focus on both sides on the WTO accession, talks on which have been going on for 14 years. The bilateral deals struck between China and its major trading partners are currently, in the jargon, being "multilateralised" in Geneva to ensure that concessions made to one are applied to all in the final joint agreement on membership.
The complex work should be completed, EU officials hope, by the end of the year allowing Chinese accession in early 2001.
But there are still problems in a number of areas relating to transition periods, including subsidy limits and procedures for annual monitoring by Geneva of implementation. Bilateral concessions, particularly in services, are also seen as potentially difficult to harmonise. The EU has also been contributing to China's economic reform programme with €60 million in the last three years to raising expertise in key sectors such as financial services and statistical methods. Some 3,000 officials from central and local government have been given courses on public procurement.
And the Commission President, Mr Romano Prodi, will also want to discuss joint work on air safety and the possibility of Chinese involvement in the European satellite positioning system, Galileo.
Human rights discussions will be frostier, with the EU insisting that its position of constructive engagement, in the face of NGO criticism, only makes sense if it produces results. The Chinese emphasis on economic and social rights has been seen as exasperating and has provoked hostile comments from their old sparring partner, the Commissioner for External Affairs, Mr Chris Patten, whose Hong Kong days have not been forgotten.
Top on the list of Mr Zhu's non-economic priorities is to step up pressure on Taiwan.
Wherever he has been, the Prime Minister has sought a confirmation of his host country's "one China policy", in particular, a pledge not to sell weapons to Taiwan. During a speech in Hamburg, Mr Zhu praised the German government for what he called its "three insistences": upholding the one China policy; no official exchanges with Taiwan; and no sale of weapons to Taipei.
