Next week is the start of the EU-China Business Summit 2011, recognized as the most high-level platform for exchange between EU and Chinese businesses and political leaders. So how are China–EU relations on the eve of the summit? In pretty dire straits, says Jonathan Holslag, head of research at the Brussels Institute of Contemporary China Studies (BICCS), who has authored several books on China’s foreign relations. For the cause of the disappointing state of affairs, he saves most of his critical words for the EU.

Speaking at an event organized by the China Foreign Correspondent Club in Beijing which Springtime attended yesterday, Jonathan Holslag smiles occasionally and looks well-mannered at his audience of foreign journalists and diplomats while laying into the EU’s foreign policy. Europe has lost a lot of the good faith it once had, says Holslag, not only with China but other developing nations such as India and Brazil, whose officials he describes as even more frustrated than the Chinese.

He paints a bleak picture of the Chinese view of Europe. Among China’s government officials Europe is seen as being on dangerous economic collision course. Policy towards the rest of the world is scattershot, impenetrable and officials are frustrated by what they see as “bureaucratic experimentation” i.e. junkets of bureaucrats who come to Beijing to test policies that have not yet received wide support in Brussels.

Even in areas where China looked to Europe for solutions such as its welfare model officials now have doubts. The model – once lauded in China – is blamed for making European economies stagnant and inflexible. And the conference in Tianjin next week? It’s very unlikely to lead to anything of substance, thinks Holslag, who sees this year’s party as a little more than window-dressing and flattery for bureaucrats on both sides. Especially since China is wary repeating the mistakes of last year’s session when many Chinese business leaders and politicians left in a huff after a feeling of being roundly criticized.

Holslag’s analysis is quite hard on Europe. At one point, a diplomat in the room remarks, ”wouldn’t you say it takes two to tango?” And listening to the diplomatic chatter for several years in Beijing, it is easy to understand that even countries that have made very coordinated efforts at building strong trade policy with China stumble. But nevertheless, being European, it is sometimes easy to get lulled into the belief that China would be looking to Europe for solutions, especially in areas such as the welfare state, urban planning, labor and environmental policy, where Europe sees itself as offering far superior solutions to American-style models. The reality is that China may be becoming ever more reticent and frustrated to engage with Europe at all.

After listening to the bleak a prognosis a journalist pipes in, “Well, what can be done?” With clearer coordination and better internal coordination in the EU there might be some hope, says Holslag, but worries that Europe’s leaders are more likely caught up in putting out more fires at home than they care about the simmering frustration in China. That would be a shame. Both China and Europe have much to gain from concerted talks, more mature, well-thought-out and coordinated Sino-EU relations, and very little to gain from a few days of flattering speeches.

Lina Törnquist is a consultant at Springtime’s Beijing office