EU not ready to lift China arms embargo
But the arms sale ban may not last long.
The European Union decided on Wednesday
to maintain its 15-year-old arms embargo on China, reports
Reuters.
"The EU side confirmed its political will to continue to work towards lifting the embargo," the EU and China said in a joint statement issued at the summit in The Hague. The joint statement leaves open lifting the ban next year "despite fierce opposition from Washington and human rights groups," reports
Reuters.
The EU cited concerns about China's commitment to human rights. The embargo was imposed after the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre of pro-democracy activists.
Prior to the EU vote, China declared that "the issue is a '
matter of principle' that, if unresolved, could have serious political and economic repercussions,"
Guardian columnist, Simon Tisdall.
The United States
vigorously opposes lifting the arms ban, reports
The Times of London. The US said the sale of advanced European weapons to China would "lead to restrictions on American co-operation with Europe on defense issues."
'We can't countenance the notion of advanced European weapons technology finding its way into the People's Army and threatening our forces in the region, or Taiwan,' a US government official told the
Times. 'It is very close to the bone for us. It is not at all in the EU's interest to lift the arms embargo.'
France voted in favor of lifting the arms ban against China. It has "broader, geopolitical motives [than just]
thwarting America's will," says
Guardian columnist, Simon Tisdall. France has a primary commercial interest in China, he says. "French president, Jacques Chirac, netted an estimated $4 billion in industrial orders during a state visit to China earlier this year."
Germany also favored lifting the ban for commercial reasons. Chancellor Gerhard Schr���der made a business visit to China last week. Initially, it was thought that "other EU members' fears of being left behind" would trump human rights considerations, says the
Guardian.
Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair maintained that the EU would press China for assurances on human rights but
continue to talk about lifting the embargo in stages, says
Times foreign editor, Bronwen Maddo.
Jan Peter Balkenende, the Dutch prime minister, told Wen Jiabao, his Chinese counterpart, that "Europe has agreed in principle to end the embargo once China improves its human rights record and the EU has agreed a new code of conduct for arms sales," reports the
Times.
Amnesty International called the ban "a vital means of
maintaining pressure on China to curb abuses, reports the
Guardian. Human Rights Watch called for an independent inquiry into the Tiananmen massacre.
'No one has been held accountable for the decision to turn the army against the citizens of Beijing. No one knows how many were killed or injured ...or how many remain in prison.' A recent visit to China by a UN Human Rights Commission delegation found "continuing persecution of political dissidents." The UN was refused access to prisoners in Lhasa, the capital of Chinese-controlled Tibet, where abuses had previously occurred, says the
Guardian.
The Rome-based anti-capital punishment group,
Hands Off Cain, charged this week that at least 5,000 people were put to death in China last year. The figure, if accurate, would make Beijing the world's biggest executioner, says Hands Off Cain.
Japan expressed serious concerns about China's growing regional political and military clout. These concerns reached new levels last month by the
apparently deliberate incursion into Japanese waters of a Chinese nuclear submarine.
US objections to lifting the arms embargo center on two points, reports the
Times
China is spending billions of dollars upgrading its military capability and is rapidly becoming an economic superpower. .....[and] East Asia remains militarily unstable, with China threatening Taiwan and North Korea threatening South Korea. The US is worried that Europe will sell China advanced technology, such as over-the- horizon-targeting systems that would enable the Chinese military to strike American ships hundreds of miles out in the Pacific. Despite the fact that the
EU remains split over lifting the 15-year-old arms embargo on China, and diplomats confrim the bloc appears set to end the ban sooner or later, reports
Agence France Presse.
While few are willing to speculate on when that might be, the campaign spearheaded by France and Germany appears to be gaining momentum inside the 25-member bloc, [diplomats say].
Also...
•
Chinese firm buys IBM PC business (
BBC)
•
Sino-European relations not directed against third party: Chinese premier (
The People's Daily)
•
India and China grow on each other (
The Straits Times)
• Feedback appreciated. E-mail
Jim Bencivenga
.
|
RSS feed