There are encouraging signs that the junta ruling Burma is starting to reform, and the country has been visited by Hillary Clinton and several top politicians from Europe. The EU's foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, also needs to pay Burma a visit, and soon.

With Europe and much of the West facing a seemingly painful decline, attention continues to shift to the BRICS and the world's other rising powers. But are these countries overplaying their hands as the cracks begin to show in their economic virility?

Last year was a tipping point in China's approach to the world, and expectations are rising that Beijing will shoulder ever greater responsibility on the global stage. But if China joins the US as a world policeman, should the rest of us be worried?

After a frenetic 2011, what are the big trends that are going to shape Europe and the wider world in 2012? Here are ten that ECFR experts think are likely - and one widely predicted trend that we don't think will happen...

As its international profile and interests grow, China's foreign policies - now those of a great power - are coming under increasing scrutiny. Here are the four fault lines that are forming in how Beijing deals with the world.

Europe's economic troubles have forced it to continue looking to China for financing. But Beijing, which is thought to hold up to 30 percent of its reserves in euros, is driving an increasingly hard bargain.

Despite the fashionable talk about BRICS and the G2 of Washington and Beijing, we really now live in a G3 world that combines US military power and consumption, Chinese capital and labour, and European rules and technology.

The USA and Europe have something in common: they need China's money. In the coming decade, the three economic centres of the world have to find better ways to interact on financial and economic matters.

Berlin and Beijing have a flourishing trade relationship, and Wen's visit to Germany today will strengthen political links. With ministers from the two governments about to stage a major meeting, China is a test case for Germany's changed role in Europe.

Last week's meeting between China's ambassador to Qatar and the head of Libya's opposition movement signalled a departure from Beijing's traditional insistence on not interfering in the internal affairs of other nations. China's growing interests around the world means that we can expect more of the same in the coming years.

EU-China relations are maturing, and this is allowing a more frank and pragmatic approach to negotiations. The red carpet treatment for Herman Van Rompuy when he visited Beijing recently is testimony to this.

Events in Libya have forced China to bend its cherished principle of non-intervention – not least in order to rescue 35,000 of its citizens from the country. Is this the moment that Beijing steps onto the world stage as a great power?

China's huge currency reserves, and the indebted West's need for them, have created a new game. The object for Europe is to secure investment from Beijing, while also attempting to see through the veil of secrecy to find out exactly where the Chinese are spending their money. 

For Chinese leaders who lived through 1989, events in the Middle East are bringing back worrying memories. But the Arab revolutions could also present an opportunity for Beijing to increase its influence in the region.

The Chinese authorities are watching events in Egypt with concern: faced with an urban protest movement in an economically-growing nation, the Mubarak regime used tactics from Beijing's book, to no avail. But China also has advantages in the race to woo the emerging Arab democracies.