The speed with which the image of China has changed in just a few short years has been shocking. The world has lived through a financial crisis and a pandemic; the image of Europe as an island of interstate peace has been shattered; and deep-seated fears about technological and environmental change abound. These uncertain times have destroyed many old points of reference and unsettled expectations for the future. In his work on the narrative identity of states, Ringmar characterizes such times as ‘formative moments’ that challenge settled interests and identities and question entrenched stories, which can therefore be seized by political actors to ‘present an alternative account of the world’ (1996: 456). The rise of new narratives during times of upheaval is an age-old phenomenon, but the rapid proliferation of political stories about relations between China and Europe is not. At the heart of this change is arguably the broadly shared assumption that China's influence is growing and that this will bring about momentous change. As such, we can understand changing stories about Europe, China and their relations as attempts to come to terms with a world where China looms larger.

These stories merit critical attention for at least three reasons. First, because the current moment in Europe– China relations is rife with competing stories and metaphors, each offering different interpretations of what is going on and, by extension, what should be done. At the same time, narratives are only rarely studied in this field, as we will explore later in the chapter.