Since 2019, the European Union (EU) officially defines China as a ‘multifaceted partner, economic competitor, and systemic rival’. In 2025, it reaffirmed this assessment of its relationship with China, putting more emphasis on the rivalry. There is much, both in terms of politics and economics, that divides, and gives rise to tension between, the EU and China.  However, in times in which the United States (US) imposes, through coercion and extorsion, a most unfavourable trade deal on the EU and threatens to annex territory of one of its Member States, the EU may need to reassess its relationship with China. The US is evidently intent on redesigning the international order in its own narrow national interest and has turned its back on international cooperation and the rule of law in international relations. Both the EU and China, on the contrary, still profess their adherence to a rules-based international order and peaceful, mutually beneficial international relations. While this would be most desirable, it is unclear, however, whether the EU and China can be partners in, and global leaders of, an effort to preserve a rules-based international order. What is clear is that for such partnership to be possible, and global leadership to be credible, the EU and China must overcome, or at least mitigate, current disagreements, in particular disagreements on economic issues. This conference aims to address these disagreements and search for common ground on issues that currently divide the EU and China.