The EU in a Permacrisis: China and East Asian Partners as Drivers of Change

Abstract

In a period defined by a “permacrisis” - from geopolitical shocks and economic instability to the erosion of multilateral norms - China has become a central reference point in the European Union’s ongoing redefinition of its external action, identity, and governance practices. This panel investigates how China-related challenges in technology, infrastructure, education, and culture intersect with crisis-driven dynamics within the EU, revealing emerging tensions in institutional responses, political narratives, and role-making processes. By examining cases that span AI regulation, parliamentary debate, educational diplomacy, and audiovisual cooperation, the panel shows how external pressures triggered by China and other key East Asian countries, including South Korea and Taiwan, contribute to broader transformations in EU governance and political identity. The first paper compares emerging AI governance models in the EU, South Korea, and Taiwan, showing how identity, normative commitments, and cross-regional ties shape divergent yet overlapping regulatory pathways, and how these patterns inform Europe’s strategic positioning under conditions of global technological competition. The second paper turns to the European Parliament, analysing a decade of debates on Chinese infrastructure investments and revealing how China functions as a contested frame that fragments rather than unifies political groups, thus challenging assumptions about institutional cohesion in times of geopolitical pressure. The third contribution analyses the twenty-year trajectory of Confucius Institutes in Europe, demonstrating how educational diplomacy, once framed as cultural cooperation, has become increasingly entangled with securitization dynamics, contributing to shifts in Europe’s self-understanding and expectations of China’s behaviour. The fourth paper examines cultural security in EU-China and UK-China cinema diplomacy, showing how security narratives reshape the ambitions and governance of co-production, festival cooperation, and audiovisual engagement. Taken together, these papers highlight how crises and the pressures of systemic rivalry with China catalyse shifts in Europe’s identity formation, external engagement strategies, and governance approaches. The panel advances debates on crisis-induced change by revealing how technological, infrastructural, cultural, and educational arenas become key sites in which the EU negotiates its normative aspirations and its capacity to act in an increasingly unstable international order.

Title	Details
Bridging Regions, Aligning Values: AI Governance and Democratic Innovation in the EU, ROK and Taiwan	View Paper Details
Framing China in Times of Permacrisis: Educational Diplomacy and the Making of the EU Self	View Paper Details
From Opportunity to Caution: Italian Elite Discourse and Policy Evolution towards Chinese Investment	View Paper Details
Coerced Cooperation and Passive Resistance: The Advocacy Coalition Dynamics in China’s Digital Currency Subsystem	View Paper Details
Cultural Security and Cinema diplomacy in Europe-China relations	View Paper Details