(2004-01-31) -- Allowing European Union (EU) nations to sell advanced weaponry to the communist Chinese dictatorship will help maintain global balance, according to the French Foreign Minister who wants the EU to drop its embargo on such sales. "There is a balance in world affairs -- a yin and yang, if you will," said Dominique de Villepin (who is a man). "There will always be iron-fisted regimes and there will always be oppressed people yearning for freedom. It's part of the circle of life. By selling military technology to China at a time when dictatorships are threatened by the forces of freedom, we help assure that balance is maintained. Besides, if we don't sell to them, all the Chinese money keeps going to the Russians, whose weapons aren't nearly as effective as ours." While the United States opposes arms sales due to China's record of human rights abuses, Mr. de Villepin said the term 'human rights' is "open to interpretation."

"It's such a loaded term," he said. "Every time the U.S. wants to stop us from arming a dictatorship, they throw out that red herring." Mr. de Villepin said, however, that France and her allies had learned something from the experience of selling weapons to Saddam Hussein while Iraq was under U.N. sanctions. "As your American Girl Scouts say, 'get the money before you give them the cookies'," he said.