Move to lift Chinese arms ban

Date: 15/05/1997

By Shada Islam

EU GOVERNMENTS, already split over human rights in China, could soon become embroiled in an even more difficult discussion over whether to end the Union embargo on arms sales to Beijing

The first hints that the eight-year-old weapons ban could soon be put on the EU agenda have come from French Defence Minister Charles Millon, who said recently that it was time the Union took another look at the embargo introduced in 1989 after the Chinese government crack-down on pro-democracy demonstrators in Tienanmen Square.

Sent to Beijing to prepare for President Jacques Chirac's visit to China tomorrow (16 May), Millon told Chinese officials he hoped the embargo would be lifted “over time”.

While short of the spectacular breakthrough that China has been discreetly lobbying for, Millon's comments are the clearest sign yet that Paris is not only becoming increasingly frustrated with the EU ban but is also getting ready to work for its removal. Independent defence specialists say that Germany, Italy and Spain would also like it to be reviewed.

China has been campaigning for an end to the EU embargo for several months. Chinese defence officials who have visited France and other Union capitals in recent months have made it clear that their government is eager to buy the best of Europe's advanced military technology to modernise its air force and navy.

European defence experts say that Russia, Beijing's main supplier of weapons, is reluctant to share its defence technology with China. As a result, the Chinese armed forces are becoming increasingly interested in acquiring European military know-how.

“China is having problems meeting its military technology requirements,” said Siemon Wezeman of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. “The jet engines and electronics equipment it needs for fighter planes and naval bombers under development cannot be produced locally.” An end to the EU arms embargo would make access to such equipment and technology easier.

But scrapping the ban will not be easy. It was imposed unanimously by the 15 EU governments and can only be lifted by consensus.

As the recent in-fighting between Union countries over whether to criticise China's human rights performance at a United Nations Commission in Geneva showed, member states remain far apart over policy towards China.

The motion condemning Beijing's record was tabled by Denmark, with the support of nine other EU countries and the United States. But France, Germany, Greece, Spain and Italy broke ranks with their Union partners and refused to back the resolution, and China mustered enough support to prevent it being adopted.

The row highlighted a fundamental difference in EU attitudes towards China: the Netherlands, Denmark and other Nordic nations insist that human rights must come first, while France, Germany, Spain and Italy are putting the focus on business and dialogue, arguing that once the Chinese economy starts to thrive, political change will follow.

Attempts to patch up some of these differences were made at a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg last month.

France, Germany, Spain, Italy and Greece have promised to warn Beijing that any trade reprisals against Denmark for tabling the EU resolution and against the other countries for backing it would be viewed as unacceptable by all 15 member states.

China has nevertheless called off planned trade visits to the ten countries which backed the UN resolution and, according to Danish industrialists, has started targeting Danish companies with business interests in China.

French officials insist that they are not in any hurry to start discussions on lifting the arms embargo. “We do not expect EU policy to change overnight,” said one official in Paris. “But we are thinking about the future. If the human rights situation in China changes, then in one or two years the Union could modify its position.”

Others are not so sure. “We see no need to change Europe's policy on the embargo,” said a Dutch official.

Even with the ban still in place, most of the EU's main arms suppliers have been gradually stepping up their military contacts with China.

There is no common Union-wide interpretation of just which items are covered by the embargo, leaving member states to use their own discretion in vetting defence sales to China. But all EU countries have agreed not to sell lethal weapons to the country.

As a result, supplies of guns, large-calibre weapons, torpedoes, bombs, missiles, aircraft, vessels of war and armoured vehicles are ruled out, but sales of other 'non lethal' equipment which does not add to China's offensive capabilities are resuming.