The recent Brexit has triggered market turbulence worldwide and also caused extensive concerns about whether the current trend of globalization will continue, with some interpreting the incident as the start of de-globalization.

Globalization has entered a stage dominated by the trade in services, in which the development of bilateral and multilateral free trade areas in services is accelerating. However, trade protectionism, conservationism and populism may pose more severe challenges following Brexit.

For China and the European Union, which will have to assimilate the negative influences from Britain's departure, the establishment of a China-EU free trade area by 2020 would not only liberalize trade but also lubricate China's economic transformation and upgrading, and the EU's economic recovery.