In the course of the last 20 or more years the intensity of economic exchange between the People's Republic of China (henceforth China) and the various European economies has increased dramatically. This development was triggered largely by the economic policy changes introduced by Deng Xiaoping in 1978. Since then, China has freed itself from its former self-imposed isolation and gradually integrated with the world economy. The market-oriented transformation process initiated in China in the late 1970s created the preconditions for the resumption of economic contacts that had been largely stagnant in the preceding years. The gradual establishment of a market-based economic framework has step-by-step allowed economic entities to exploit the comparative advantages of the economies concerned and enlarge the scope of division of labour with China.