Timeline of the drafting process
Trade deal shows two sides can act together while competing, expert says
October 2014: The Fourth Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China puts forward the task of compiling the Civil Code.
March 2015: The Legislative Affairs Commission of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress begins formulating legislation for the code. The process is divided into two parts; the first for the General Provisions and the second for the six other sections.
March 2017: The NPC passes the code’s General Provisions.
October 2017: The General Provisions of the Civil Code are unveiled.
August 2018 to December 2019: The NPC Standing Committee reviews six draft sections of the Civil Code and combines them with the General Provisions to provide the full text of the code. It submits the full version of the draft to the NPC for deliberation.
December 2019 to January 2020: The NPC Standing Committee seeks public opinion on the draft code. It receives more than 114,000 comments from 13,000 netizens.
May 2020: The NPC discusses the draft code. It is passed on May 28.
January: The Civil Code comes into effect.
To Shada Islam, a longtime observer of European UnionAsia affairs, EU-China relations have demonstrated strong resilience in the past year despite challenges and geopolitical headwinds.
As head of the Brussels-based global strategic and advisory firm New Horizons Project, Islam noticed that high-level contacts between the two sides have “intensified and become even more frequent than ever”.
She was referring to the three video conferences with EU leaders attended by Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2020. In addition, there were many meetings between other senior officials and ministers, and a trip to five European nations by State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi in late August.
She described the exchanges as “signaling China’s continuing interest in the EU as a strategic partner”.
Islam praised China and the EU for launching their new highlevel dialogues on the environment, climate and the digital sector, subjects that will also be high on the agenda of the annual sessions of the National People’s Congress and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference National Committee.
“In the future, I see intensified discussions on climate change and digital networks as well as connectivity, including in Africa, and efforts to reinforce fragilized multilateral cooperation,” she told China Daily ahead of the two sessions.
She added that it’s important for the two sides to talk and discuss difficult issues and areas where they disagree to make the relationship work better.
Islam, a noted commentator in Brussels, said the EU-China Comprehensive Agreement on Investment, which concluded on Dec 30, “marks a constructive geostrategic moment” and shows their economic interdependence.
“The deal sends a strong message to the world that countries can compete in some areas but can also act together, both for their own interests and for the broader global interest,” she said.
She believes that the EU hopes the agreement, once ratified, will help spur further opening-up of the Chinese economy in much the same way that China’s WTO membership did in 2001.
Islam said the EU is becoming a more confident and self-assured global actor in concluding the deal despite criticism, and the investment deal, along with several others the EU has concluded in the region, means that the EU has become “part and parcel of a vibrant, dynamic and expanding Asia-Pacific economic area”.
She stressed that both the EU and China grappled in the past year with the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on their health structure and economy.
“Despite difficult geopolitical headwinds, the EU-China relationship showed its resilience in difficult times,” she said.
While EU leaders feel relieved that Joe Biden is now in the White House, Islam said that the EU has also learned harsh lessons about over-reliance on the US.
With German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron in the driver’s seat, the EU is pushing ahead with plans for open strategic autonomy, according to Islam.
She said it was the EU “no longer walking in America’s shadow and being able to act independently from Washington and about putting European interests first”.
She believes that the four years of the Trump administration have damaged European trust in the US, its leadership and its priorities, and there is this abiding concern in Europe that Trump’s legacy will live on.
“Europeans are more aware than many in America of the fact that the world has changed and that demand for ‘US leadership’ is not strong,” she said.
“The world is in transition. And like many other countries, Europeans don’t like being offered a binary choice between the US and China,” she said.