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. It provides new insights into the EU'¬"s internal debate on the merits of its quiet human rights diplomacy and, where relevant, also compares the EU approach with that of other actors, notably the United States. Drawing on almost seventy interviews and building on classified information on the dialogue, Kinzelbach lifts the veil of secrecy and presents a policy assessment which does not rely exclusively on the EU'¬"s public pronouncements on the dialogue, but de-links the assessment from diplomatically worded pieces of political communication. The author then offers a policy assessment that includes an institutional appraisal, an examination of dialogue dynamics and an impact assessment. This ground-breaking book will 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.