3. Welcomes the agreements reached during the 15th EU-China Summit held in Brussels on
20 September 2012; urges their swift operationalisation and implementation, which will
strengthen relations between the Union and China;
4. Welcomes also the commitments made at the 15th EU-China Summit, in particular
regarding the negotiation of an agreement on investment and the establishment of a regular
dialogue on defence and security issues;
5. Considers that relations between the EU and China, both at the economic and trade levels
and at the cultural and social levels, could be one of the major factors in the development
and betterment of both societies and therefore sees this cooperation as vital for the interests
of both sides;
6. Welcomes the launch and successful first round of the EU-China High-Level
People-to-People Dialogue; expresses satisfaction with the progress and achievements of
the EU-China Year of Intercultural Dialogue and takes note of the agreement reached at the
15th EU-China Summit on a series of follow-up actions in various areas relating to
education, culture, multilingualism and youth;
7. Calls on the Commission, the Council and the relevant Chinese authorities to facilitate, in
cooperation with Parliament, tourist flows from China to the EU by harmonising and
accelerating procedures for issuing visas for Chinese nationals, particularly in the context of
business and conference travel;
8. Welcomes the call made by both sides at the 15th EU-China Summit for the launch of a
comprehensive EU-China dialogue on mobility and migration at an appropriate level and
their mutual undertaking to continue to explore ways of facilitating exchanges for Chinese
ad EU citizens, including mutual visa exemptions for holders of diplomatic passports;
9. Emphasises that China is not only the world’s second-largest economy and biggest exporter
in the global economy, but also an increasingly important political power;
Internal situation
10. Stresses that China, in recent decades, has achieved significant social progress; emphasises
that such an improvement in the quality of life in a huge country in such a short period of
time is unique in history; notes that China’s economic growth has lifted more than half a
billion people out of poverty since 1990;
11. Takes note of the 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-2015), approved by the National People’s
Congress in March 2012, which is intended to tackle the negative side-effects of an
unparalleled period of sustained high economic growth, such as acute environmental
threats, regional imbalances, rising income inequality and continuing collective protests
centred on social, economic and legal grievances;
12. Notes the importance of identifying common ground between the Europe 2020 strategy and
China’s 12th Five-Year-Plan;
13. Welcomes China’s successful economic policy, but shares the criticism made by
independent Chinese scholars and observers that the preservation of this trend is seriously
threatened by corruption scandals, a lack of transparency and a ‘red aristocracy’ of close