But the European states operating in China - especially Britain, France, Germany and Italy - work for themselves. They focus on business and commercial opportunities for their own companies and attracting Chinese investment, students and tourists.

'Europe has not fully developed a deliberate and sustained policy to deal with China,' writes Roland Vogt, assistant professor of European Studies at the University of Hong Kong and editor of the book. 'China has also struggled to articulate a cohesive policy towards Europe. Both sides share little in terms of values, beliefs, ideas, common historical bonds, political preferences and outlooks on how societies should be run.'

The book includes chapters on human rights, China's expanding role in Africa, climate change, Sino-Vatican relations, energy issues between the EU and Taiwan, and five on Sino-European relations in the changing international order.

The one on human rights shows how far apart the two sides are. The EU promotes human rights and democracy as part of its diplomacy. There is an annual human rights dialogue but it has not yielded concrete results because the EU states are unwilling to put this issue above commercial advantage.

For its part, the mainland emphasises the importance of economic development and social stability, collective as well as individual rights, and the need to subordinate human rights to the rule and authority of the Communist Party. So the meetings are largely a dialogue of the deaf.

In addition, the power relationship is changing. Financial crisis and social protest at home are weakening the European governments; they need China's help and support and their leverage is diminishing.

The chapter on Africa is also interesting. 'The competing interests of China and Europe in Africa, coupled with their different concepts of development co-operation, constitute genuine challenges to co-operation.'

About 30,000 mainland companies and 750,000 Chinese are established in Africa, the largest presence in history. They are challenging long-standing European influence and interests in the continent. Beijing concentrates on 'hardware' and non-interference in the host country; the EU links respect for human rights to development assistance.

'The fundamental dilemma and the source of increasing tension between the EU and China concerning the different approaches of European governments and the Beijing government towards investing in and granting aid to Africa will not disappear.'

Europe and China is well researched and well written, with a detailed index and references; they include a wide range of books and articles for further research as well as tables and figures.

It is a good source of material for those interested in this complex and under-reported subject.