Over the three decades after China established formal ties in 1975 with the European Economic Community, the predecessor of the EU, China-Europe ties have witnessed substantial development, having entered a new stage of comprehensive cooperation covering wide areas and multiple levels.

In 1994, China and Europe signed a political dialogue agreement. In January 1998, China and the EU decided to establish a mechanism for annual meetings between leaders of the two sides.

Since then, exchanges of high-level visits have been frequent and mutual political trust has continuously deepened between China and Europe.

In 2001, China and Europe decided to establish a comprehensive partnership. In October 2003, after the sixth China-EU summit, the two sides agreed to establish a comprehensive strategic partnership.

In 2005, Chinese President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao visited Europe in October and December respectively. Eight high-ranking European officials also visited China.

The sound development of political relations has given a big boost to the development of China-Europe trade, leading to a rapid increase in the trade volume between the two sides.

In 2003, China-EU trade for the first time broke the 100 billion U.S. dollars mark to reach 125.2 billion dollars. The figure went up further to 177.3 billion in 2004.

In 2005, bilateral trade broke the 200 billion mark to reach 217.3 billion dollars, about 74 times the figure registered when the two sides established formal relations.

Currently, China is the EU's second largest trading partner and the EU is China's biggest supplier of technologies and equipment. In the first eight months last year, China imported 1,615 new technologies from the EU, with a contracted value of 4.9 billion U.S. dollars.

Moreover, the two sides have been stepping up cooperation in science and technology, education, finance, social security and other fields. They also have strengthened exchanges and cooperation in areas such as disease prevention, energy and climate change.