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| China-Japan-Koreas |
| US moves to stop EU lifting China embargo |
| 2004-04-02 |
| The US has launched a diplomatic campaign against the European Union’s move to lift its arms embargo on China. Washington is demanding a series of formal meetings on the issue with European governments. State department officials said Colin Powell, secretary of state, had already raised the matter with a number of his European counterparts. "It isn’t just confined to conversations in Brussels," said one state department official. "We’re making representations in European capitals and in Washington." People familiar with the Bush administration’s thinking say US officials see the move to lift the embargo as an attempt by Jacques Chirac, the French president, to re-open French commercial ties to Beijing. They also fear that Mr Chirac, the main backer of the plan, is making a geopolitical play to open up a channel to China while the US is making very public overtures to Taiwan. This week, the Pentagon announced it would sell Taiwan $1.8bn worth of long-range early-warning radars to strengthen Taipei’s defences. The US is also concerned about potential military technology transfers from western Europe to China. Some Bush administration officials have also expressed concern that a rift over China could open new divisions between the US and Europe, whose disputes over Iraq have only just begun to cool. The EU embargo was imposed after China’s brutal suppression of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, and advocates for repealing the embargo argue it is a relic of the cold war. This year Mr Chirac said the embargo "makes no more sense today". Javier Solana, the EU foreign policy chief, showed his support for a change during a trip to Beijing last month. Some in the Bush administration have become concerned with the UK’s stance, believing that Britain has not moved quickly or forcefully enough to block the initiative. The UK ministry of defence said it "supports in principle the review", adding "we welcome the views of other interested parties". Jack Straw, the UK foreign minister, told a Parliamentary committee recently: "We have not come to any final view on the merits of lifting it until we have had a full consideration of its effects up to now. As far as proliferation is concerned, there are other international instruments in place that we are obliged by law to observe." The US has expressed unease at what it views as Britain’s equivocation and is pushing its ally to block the move. "To the extent that we’ve told them that this is a bad idea and they’re still considering it, that’s a concern to us," said a state department official. Germany, which last December supported France in starting proceedings to lift the embargo, has now cooled to the idea. The Green party, a junior member of Chancellor Gerhard Schroder’s governing coalition, wants to maintain the embargo. EU member states have yet to agree on a timetable for reconsidering the ban. Opponents of the embargo, both in the UK and elsewhere in the EU, have argued that EU members are already bound by a code of conduct that requires exporters to ensure weapons sold to Beijing will not be used against human rights activists or opposition movements. "We do not want the arms embargo to become embroiled in the European parliament election campaign [this June], where the Greens will make an issue of it," said an EU diplomat. France is playing its old games, Blair’s Eurocratic beliefs have come to the surface again and Germany - who wouldn’t benefit in the short run and might lose jobs to Chinese industries - is having second thoughts. |
| Posted by:rkb |
| #1 So much for any unity in the European Union. It's really difficult to understand how any country outside of China does not realize that trading with them essentially builds the PRC military while NGO's are forced to pick up their politburo's slack in fighting the world's largest medically caused AIDS crisis. |
| Posted by: Zenster 2004-04-02 8:37:39 PM |