The European Union uses a confidential, institutionalized Dialogue to raise human rights concerns with China, but little is publicly known about its set-up, its substance, its development over time and its impact. This book provides the first detailed reconstruction and assessment of the EU’s responses to human rights violations in China from 1995 to the present day. Using classified documents in the EU’s historical archives and interviews with diplomats, officials and human rights experts in Europe, China and the United States, Kinzelbach lifts the veil of secrecy on the EU-China Human Rights Dialogue and provides a rare insight into how the European Union and China conduct quiet diplomacy on human rights. The book reconstructs the evolution of the Dialogue and the EU’s internal debate on the merits of quiet diplomacy, and draws comparisons with the approach of other actors, notably that of the United States. In doing so, the EU’s relative impact is concluded to be tenuous if not counter-productive. The book also chronicles and analyzes numerous human rights concerns that were raised in the period, ranging from structural issues to individual cases. This ground-breaking, in-depth case study will be of interest to students and scholars of international politics, human rights, international law, EU politics, especially the EU’s Common Foreign and Security Policy, and Chinese politics.

Seminar paper from the year 2008 in the subject Politics - Topic: Public International Law and Human Rights, grade: 1,7, Vrije University Brussel (Faculty of Economic, Political and Social Sciences and Solvay Business School), course: European and International Politics, language: English, abstract: This paper examines the impact of policies of the European Union (EU) on the human rights development in the People’s Republic of China (PRC). To this end the definition of human rights from a United Nations perspective will be used. After briefly looking at the history of human rights abuses in China, the paper turns towards the main analysis shedding light on the EU’s conditional engagement policy towards China and the nature of the EU-China relations - whether it be a true strategic partnership or merely a strategic dialogue. The paper then evaluates the success of the EU’s policy by looking at how far it has been able to achieve its objectives set with regard to human rights in the PRC. Moving on from the achievements to date, a critical outlook on the prospects of Europe’s strategy is given comprising an analysis of the opportunities and challenges the EU is likely to face in this respect. Finally, the paper concludes that the impact of the European Union on the human rights development in China remains far from clear-cut. Whereas some scholars and politicians attribute much of the observed advancements to Europe’s conditional engagement policy, others challenge this view and contest that developments in this area are predominantly related to China’s overall economic progress. While the truth probably lies somewhere in between these two opposing views, future human rights development in the PRC will nevertheless remain a challenging task. Whereas developments on the economic and social side are also in China’s interest and will thus be relatively easy to promote, holistic progress - including civil and political rights - will only be possible if substantial differences between the EU and China can successfully be dissolved. Amongst other things, this will require the development of deep mutual cultural understanding and the discovery of sophisticated, novel negotiation approaches. Due to the complexity and sensitivity of the involved issues meaningful progress will only develop gradually, though, and the achievement of a universally acceptable human rights standard in China will still require a substantial amount of time as well as the willingness to compromise on behalf of both parties.

EUROPEAN STUDIES: An Interdisciplinary Series in European Culture, History and Politics -- Contents -- Authors in this Volume -- Introduction -- THE CONTEXT OF EU-CHINA RELATIONS AND THE HUMAN RIGHTS DILEMMA -- Eu-China Relations: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives -- The Development of Eu-China Relations -- The Eu and China in the Context of Inter-regionalism -- Duality - Dialogue - Discourse: Some Perspectives on Human Rights in Eu-China Relations -- Sport and Politics: The 2008 Beijing Olympic Games -- ASPECTS OF THE GEO-POLITICAL SETTING OF EU-CHINA INTERACTION -- China Views Europe: A Multi-polar Perspective -- The European Union and China: Indian Perceptions and Perspectives -- Russia's Closer Ties with China: The Geo-politics of Energy and the Implications for the European Union -- The European Union, China and the United States: Complex Interdependence and Bi-multilateralism in Commercial Relations -- The European Union's Economic Ties with the Republic of China (Taiwan) -- ISSUES - POLICIES - PERCEPTIONS -- China, News Media Freedom and the West: Present and Future Perspectives -- Trade and Investment in the Relations Between the European Union and the People's Republic of China -- Eu-china Foreign Direct Investment: A Double-sided Perspective -- China's Search for Energy Security and Eu-China Relations -- Recent Chinese Practice In the Maintenance of Maritime Security and the European Experience -- Conclusions: Towards an Eu-China Research-Agenda 2010

The China-EC/EU relationship, started in 1975, is a highly institutionalized, multidimensional and complex, but to some extent controversial international partnership. It is also challenged within the current unstable world. This book addresses the convergences and the differences (ideational, political, institutional and interests-related) between China and the EU by a collective interaction between Chinese and European scholars. Among other things the book assesses sectoral bilateral dialogue and focuses on the interplay between internal complexity and external policies, discusses ideational divergences in international law and rule of law and in many relevant policy fields. Furthermore, it compares sustainable growth policies; explores trade and investment controversies and negotiations, human rights dialogue; and addresses environment and climate change policies. This text will be of key interest to EU studies and politics, China studies and more broadly to area/Asian studies and international relations/global governance.

The contributors attempt to look into how China and Europe differently interpret political concepts such as: sovereignty, soft power, human rights, democracy, stability, strategic partnership, multilateralism/multipolarization, and global governance, to examine what implications of their conceptual gaps may have on China-EU relations.