EU ready to cave in to US over weapons sales to China

By David Cronin

Date: 15/04/04

EU FOREIGN ministers look set to capitulate to US pressure not to lift the arms embargo imposed on China following the brutal repression of the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989.

While calls from France for the ban to be rescinded had gathered momentum in recent months, a lobbying campaign from Washington for its retention now appears to have stopped the French initiative in its tracks.

Some weeks ago it had been envisaged that EU foreign ministers could agree to at least a partial lifting of the embargo when they discuss China later this month. Yet sources now say their 26-27 April meeting in Luxembourg is due to consider recent political developments in China, without taking a decision on the embargo's fate.

The US' intervention has spurred its top European ally, the UK, into seeking that any change of the EU's position should be cleared with Washington.

"There is an important US dimension to this," said a spokeswoman for the UK Foreign Office. "It is necessary that we have dialogue with the US."

The George W. Bush administration is worried over the implications of the EU supplying weaponry to Beijing. Washington has deepened its ties with breakaway Taiwan in the past few weeks by agreeing to sell it Û1.5 billion worth of long-range early-warning radars.

A US government official warned that easing the embargo would upset the military balance in the region.

He also dismissed any suggestions that the move would only be a political gesture.

Advocates of lifting the embargo claim that arms exports to China would still be covered by the EU's 1998 code of conduct, which seeks that weapons should not be sold to regimes in cases where that might exacerbate regional tensions or contribute to human rights abuses.

"The code of conduct is no guarantee on the arms trade," the official retorted. "It is not legally binding but based on voluntary self-reporting."

France, whose previous foreign minister Dominique de Villepin branded the embargo outdated, is particularly eager to see trade with China flourish. Sino-French trade was worth some Û10 billion in 2003, a 60% rise on the previous year.

But Denmark, Sweden and the Netherlands have been reluctant to lift the embargo.

Amnesty International has urged a cautious approach to its lifting, as dozens of the pro-democracy campaigners arrested at the time of the Tiananmen Square massacre are still imprisoned 15 years on. Two weeks ago, three members of the 'Tiananmen Mothers', the group of relatives of the crackdown victims, were detained for several days.

"While the EU may be discussing whether the embargo against China is 'out of date', for the activists who are still being persecuted in China, the issue is certainly not out of date," said Dick Oosting, director of Amnesty's Brussels office.

Earlier this week, European Commission President Romano Prodi used a visit to Beijing to state that improvements in human rights would be a helpful step towards ending the embargo. His statement was welcomed by David Lee, Taipei's de facto ambassador to Brussels, who called on the Union to refrain from selling weapons to China as there is "a potential danger" that this could inflame regional tensions.

Although the embargo bans the sale of lethal weapons to Beijing, several EU states are known to still sell components for military hardware to China. These include the UK, Austria, Germany, Finland and Spain.

Additional reporting: Peter Chapman and Karen Carstens

• Primary Source

http://www.eeas.europa.eu/china/index_en.htm http://www.eeas.europa.eu/china/index_en.htm

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