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US raises stakes over China embargo
ISN SECURITY WATCH (24/02/05) - British arms giant BAE Systems is bowing to pressure from Washington not to sell arms to China as the EU prepares to lift the arms embargo on the country. A BAE spokesman told Reuters that the company was "concerned about the impact of these measures on the US". "We very much hope the British government does everything it can to ensure the US government feels that we are supportive of their point of view," the spokesman said. On Tuesday, The Times of London quoted an unnamed senior BAE official as saying that the arms giant would "spurn China" even if the EU lifted the embargo. According to British media reports, BAE is not willing to risk its â¬5.5 billion in annual sales to the US in exchange for taking on new clients in China once the embargo is lifted. "We can't do America and China, and we want to preserve our business relationship with the US; we're not going to spoil that for the sake of winning new business in China," The Times quoted the BAE official as saying. BAE Systems has nearly 30'000 employees working in North America, with US sales larger than European sales. The company is the fourth largest defense and aerospace firm - after Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and EADS. The EU imposed the arms embargo on China after the June 1989 massacre of pro-democracy protesters in Tiananmen Square. Washington has been pressuring the EU to maintain the embargo, citing China's poor human rights record and defense concerns in the Taiwan Strait. The issue reached a new climax on Monday and Tuesday at the EU-US summit in Brussels, where US President George Bush once again urged the EU to reconsider lifting the embargo. Bush failed to convince EU leaders, but Washington's pressure on BAE and other threats have been successful where diplomacy has not. The head of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee told the media he would support curbs on US sales of advanced military technology to Europe to stop that technology from reaching China if the EU lifted the embargo. "The technology the US shares with European allies could be in jeopardy if allies were sharing that through these commercial sales with the Chinese," US Senator Richard Lugar told the Financial Times. The EU plans to lift the arms embargo on China by the middle of this year. Posted by: Steve 2005-02-24 |
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