<p>Intense power politics was widely expected as a consequence of China–EU technological competition. From the perspective of relational theory, this paper reflects on China’s vision of its technological competition with the EU by incorporating a convergent vision of socialism, market liberalism and Confucianism in twenty-first century China. It argues that competition and cooperation are viewed as both constraining and enriching each other in the technological interactions between China and the EU, as do the two actors in their relationship. In the process of their interactions, China has preferred technological projects that created basic material well-being for the grassroots population and for developing countries, especially socialist countries. Given that its members are high-income economies and not socialist states, the EU has not been China’s ideal recipient of technological concessions. Nonetheless, their relations are not destined to be completely upended by technological competition. The notion of graded love calls for China to extend its relatively weak benevolence to the EU through technological contact. China’s convergent vision of technology implies a multifaceted and spectrum-like relationship with the EU. Concession and antagonism coexist differently across various issues and are affected by their technological interactions. The concessional tendency becomes stronger when an issue contains greater vis-à-vis interaction and is more closely related to basic material well-being. However, due to the dwarfing effect of graded love on the EU, China’s preference for basic material well-being can intensify confrontation when the issue more broadly involves developing countries.&#xa0;</p>