Illustration: Xia Qing/GT
Switzerland recently released its first “China strategy,” describing China as a priority country for its foreign policy. While hyping so-called “differences in values” and “human rights” concerns among bilateral relation, it also expressed a strong intention to shore up economic and trade ties with China which, however, would only be expected under mutual respect over each other’s core interests.
Within the focus areas of Switzerland’s report, it first claimed that human right topic is a “core element of the two countries’ relations.” Meanwhile, it aims to “modernize” the bilateral free trade agreement with China, and has listed out areas that it intends to pursue cooperation, from trade, infrastructure…