France

The main objective of this chapter is to characterise the activities between French regions and Chinese provinces or cities – their intensity, scopes, advantages and obstacles. Besides, as the context for the paradiplomacy, a broader perspective is briefly introduced focusing on the bilateral state, economic and social relations. An important question arises as to whether the relations at the state level correlate with the relations at the lower, regional, level. Taking the broader perspective into account, it is worth evaluating how the EU-China relation and the internal situation of China influence paradiplomacy.

Spain

One objective of this chapter is to characterize the activities between Spanish communities and Chinese provinces and cities – their intensity, scope, advantages and obstacles that they face. The question relates to a broader perspective – the bilateral state government relations and the EU-China cooperation: is there any correlation between the relations at the state level and the regional level? Moreover, one of the ultimate goals of the whole project is to analyse the impact of the EU-China relations on paradiplomacy. Do the autonomous communities see any role of the EU in their activities with Chinese partners? Do they need any support from the European Union to have more intense or effective cooperation with this Asian partner?

Poland

The first objective of the chapter is to characterize the activities between Polish regions and Chinese provinces and cities – their intensity, scope, advantages and obstacles. When it comes to a broader perspective – the bilateral state government relations – the chapter answers the question whether there is any correlation between relations at the state level and at the regional level. Moreover, taking into consideration that one of the main objectives for the whole project is to analyse the correlation between the EU-China relations and paradiplomacy, the question is: do the voivodeships see any role for the EU in their activities with Chinese partners? Do they need any support from the Union to have more intense and effective cooperation?

The United Kingdom

The aim of this chapter is to analyse how the UK actors cooperate with their Chinese counterparts at the regional and local level. Due to the United Kingdom’s constitutional and administrative structure, consisting of the four nations (countries), i.e. England, Wales, Scotland (collectively known as the Great Britain) and Northern Ireland, and a highly developed (yet asymmetrical) model of decentralisation of executive and legislative powers (known as devolution) within those four nations, in the UK’s case Sino-British local cooperation refers either to the nations themselves (e.g. Scotland), to various metropolitan projects in England (e.g. the Northern Powerhouse) or to individual cities. This chapter undertakes to answer the following questions: Do local authorities in the UK follow the central government’s policy on China? What are the British local governments’ main goals and areas of cooperation with their Chinese partners? What is the model of the UK’s paradiplomacy? The chapter consists of two main parts. The first one is devoted to the central level: the description of the UK government’s policy towards China, the state of play of UK-China relations, and the UK’s perception of China, including China’s “soft” presence in Britain (tourists, students, Confucius Institutes, etc.). The second part is focused on the local and regional level. It starts with an explanation of the legal framework of British local and regional level cooperation, then it sets forth the survey results, concluding with the presentation of two case studies: Liverpool – a city in England; and Scotland – one of the UK’s nations and EU regions

Italy

Fast growing network of national contacts in the Sino-Italian affairs builds the important layer of subnational bilateral relations. The main purpose of this paper is to analyze the role of paradiplomatical cooperation between Italian and Chinese regions. This paper contains a short overview of bilateral Italian-Chinese relations in political, economic and social terms. Furthermore there is a description of competences of the regions in the Italian foreign policy in term of legal environment for the autonomous activities of Italian regions in the international arena. Moreover this paper contains the analyses of existing links between Italian and Chinese regions on the basis of a survey conducted among regional authorities from all Italian regions. Finally it contains the case of Umbria, as a region that active cooperation with China goes well beyond economic relations.

Eu–China Paradiplomacy – the Perspective of Cities, Regions and Provinces

The main goal of this chapter is to present some characteristics of the cooperation at the regional level from the European local government perspective, including the Chinese attitude to the matter in question. The chapter starts with some basic information about the methodology and the course of the research. Next the two perspectives are presented. The first one will be the characteristics of EU-China paradiplomacy based on the data from the questionnaire completed by the regions and selected cities from the six biggest European Union countries. The second perspective focuses on the paradiplomatic phenomena from the Chinese perspective. The chapter finishes with some conclusions about the EU-China paradiplomacy and general observations.

Germany

The aim of the chapter is to analyse how Germany cooperates with China at the substate level. The authors try to highlight the background of the bilateral relations and answer the questions about the grounds for German multidimensional cooperation with China and its transformation in recent years. The chapter consists of three main parts. The first one concentrates on a description of the political, economic and social relations at the interstate level. Firstly, it presents the genesis of political relations between the Federal Republic of Germany and the People’s Republic of China, as well as how they have evolved until today. Secondly, the data on the economic exchange of recent years and the importance of bilateral cooperation between states in economic dimension is presented. Thirdly, in the section devoted to people-to-people contacts, the authors focus on the importance of the Chinese diaspora in Germany, the number of Chinese students and the role played by Confucius Institutes. The second part of the chapter discusses the theoretical background of international cooperation of German Bundesländer and their position as policy actors on the global scene. The third section presents the outcomes of a survey conducted among German regions and the results of interviews with officials in selected regional authorities and in the German MFA. This final part describes moreover German paradiplomatic relations with Chinese counterparts. This section is supplemented by a case study of the land of Berlin and its cooperation with China.