An Overview of EU–China Relations: From the Race for Energy Security to the Development of Soft Power and Public Diplomacy 1 Zoltán Vörös, István Tarrósy University of Pécs, Faculty of Humanities, Department of Political Studies, Hungary zolivoros@gmail.com, tarrosy.istvan@pte.hu Abstract: The paper provides an overview of EU–China relations by considering both ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ power aspects of both co-operation and competition, investigating one of the biggest questions of the 21 st century, i.e. the access to raw material markets, together with looking at how Chinese public diplomacy has been developed and fine-tuned in the course of the last couple of decades to be able to provide attractive “packages” for any potential partner (or competitor) in the global arena, therefore, to become even more competitive compared to other actors. We argue that the energy race, the race for raw materials is simply a diplomatic game until the demand meets with the supply. Behind the curtains, however, a crucial rush has started for the newly discovered reserves and towards huge oil exporter countries in hope of future contracts and concessions. Keywords: Energy Security, EU–China Relations, Soft Power, Raw Materials Introduction One of the most frequently discussed issues in the global arena has undoubtedly become energy security, and therefore, the big question of the 21 st century will most probably be the access to raw material markets. The need for oil and gas is growing in parallel with the ‘shift to the East’. Asian countries (such as Japan, Taiwan, South-Korea, India and China, each individually) perform huge economic growth, while still a part of the so-called Global South (except for Korea and Japan, noting that both countries are extremely dependent on oil and gas imports), thinks there is a lot (more need) to come. India’s population has been steadily growing, while Chinese economy still dazzles the world. In addition, we should not forget that the developed world is also dependent on raw materials – on oil and gas – while the reserves are exhausted. The energy race, the race for raw materials is simply a diplomatic game until the demand meets with the supply. Behind the curtains, however, a crucial rush started for the newly discovered reserves and towards huge oil exporter countries in hope of future contracts and concessions. In the game ‘smart’ strategies are badly needed to win, thus, any public 1 The paper is based upon a previous work by Zoltán Vörös presented at the conference entitled Borderless Europe in October 2010, organised by the Department of Political Studies, Faculty of Humanities, University of Pécs. That work was published as a paper in the Conference Proceedings. See: Vörös (2010) in the References.