ABSTRACT
This chapter analyzes how China's rise has been interpreted and debated within the European Union (EU). It contributes to the main objectives, namely: developing explanations for how China's rise has been interpreted by the established powers' policymakers and how these interpretations impact upon debates and policy formulation. The chapter outlines the EU's foreign policy subsystems, explores the decision-making processes in six cases and focuses on how interpretations of China's rise influenced the responses. It assesses the implications for the development of the EU's policy responses to China's rise, reflecting on the empirical findings and further developing the explanation for the persistent pattern of engagement. The chapter suggests that within the EU, a limited range of interpretations of China's rise has emerged and the differences between these are relatively narrow. Following the Tiananmen crackdown, the EU collectively tabled annual resolutions on China's human rights record at the United Nations Commission on Human Rights.
