A 42-day feeding trial was conducted to investigate the effects of dietary phospholipids on the choline requirement of the juvenile Chinese mitten crab, Eriocheir sinensis. Twelve purified diets were formulated containing two phospholipid levels (1% and 2%) and six choline chloride levels (0, 250, 500, 1 000, 2 000 and 4 000 mg/kg diet), and were fed to E. sinensis juveniles (0.22g±0.01g) with four replicates in each treatment. The results showed that dietary choline and phospholipids had a significant interaction on survival, weight gain, specific growth rate and feed conversion ratio (P<0.05). Crabs fed diets with 1000 mg/kg dietary choline chloride (1% phospholipids) and 500 mg/kg choline chloride (2% phospholipids) obtained the highest survival rate, and significantly differed from that of other treatments with low choline chloride (P<0.05). Crab weight gain and specific growth rate significantly increased with dietary choline levels from 500 to 4000 mg/kg (P<0.05). Feed conversion ratio decreased significantly with dietary choline chloride increasing from 1 000 to 4 000 mg/kg (P<0.05) at the 1% phospholipid level. At the 2% phospholipid level, feed conversion ratios of crabs fed diets with 500 and 1000 mg/kg choline chloride were significantly lower than those of the 0 mg/kg group (P<0.05), but no significant differences were detected among the 250, 2 000 and 4 000 mg/kg groups. Whole body crude lipid hepatopancreas triglycerides, hepatopancreas total cholesterol, hepatopancreas glutamate pyruvate transaminase and glutamate aspartate transaminase activities significantly decreased with choline chloride increase, regardless of the phospholipid level (P<0.05). Broken-line regression analysis based on weight gain against dietary choline levels indicated that the optimal dietary choline requirements of juvenile E. sinensis were 1 429.65 mg/kg and 529.65 mg/kg at the 1% and 2% phospholipid levels, respectively.