How can we explain the attitudes towards the European Union among Chinese citizens? That is the intriguing question we want to answer in this paper. The predictive model is based on the theories that have been successful in explaining attitudes towards out-groups in general: direct contact, knowledge, image, conflict perception, social identity, trust and political socialization theory. We used data from the 2010 ‘Chinese Views of EU’ research project (N = 2.410). The analyses show that Image theory has most empirical evidence; the attitude towards the EU correlates most with the perception that EU citizens are trustworthy. Because only a few respondents have ever been to EU countries or are in touch with people from EU countries the attitude towards and image of the EU of most respondents cannot be influenced by personal experiences. Their attitudes and the images that underlie this attitude must be mainly based on informative and affective messages from relevant others and media channels. The respondents themselves say that television - which is heavily controlled by political leaders - is their most important source of information about EU countries.
