Leader

US fury over EU arms for China
From The Times correspondents in London and Beijing
June 02, 2004

BRITISH Prime Minister Tony Blair is planning to ditch the embargo on selling arms to China imposed after the Tiananmen Square massacre 15 years ago.

In a move that will anger the US, Britain is expected to side with France and Germany in arguing it is time for the European Union ban to be lifted.

It is understood Mr Blair hopes to link the decision to improving human rights in China. But US resistance is so strong Secretary of State Colin Powell has threatened to deny US military technology to any European nation that lifts the ban.

French President Jacques Chirac is making the running on a review, with Britain arguing no decision should be made during the run-up to the US presidential election.

It is believed the US ban on arms sales to China will remain in force whether George W. Bush or Democrat challenger John Kerry wins in November.

The discussions come as China is believed to be rearming heavily and making threatening noises towards Taiwan.

A Pentagon report sent to the US Congress last week details Chinese contingency plans for invading the US-protected island, including the deployment of sophisticated missiles along the Taiwan Strait and the upgrading of fighter aircraft.

China's "determined focus on preparing for conflict in the Taiwan Strait raises serious doubts over Beijing's declared policy of seeking peaceful reunification (with Taiwan)," a senior Pentagon official said.

However, EU ministers believe a new EU code of conduct on arms exports would provide sufficient safeguards to prevent weapons that could be used for "external aggression or internal repression" being sent to China.

The US State Department is reported to be "incandescent" at the prospect of the embargo being raised, believing it to be driven by a European desire to boost trade with the communist state.

France, whose defence industry is an aggressive exporter, wants to benefit from China's pound stg. 2 billion-a-year ($5 billion) market for defence technology while US companies are banned from it.

Britain is aware of Washington's concerns over the transfer of high technology weapons to Beijing and the possible threat to democratic Taiwan, which the US has pledged to protect.

A senior British official said: "The US has to work on the basis that one day it might have to go to war with China. Its position is understandable."

But behind the scenes, Britain is trying to convince the US its fears are misplaced and is pushing for China to ratify the 1976 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights to show its determination to improve its human rights record.

Mr Chirac's call for the ban to be lifted has come as he promotes his vision of a "multipolar world" - not dominated solely by the US.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au...5E2703,00.html

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Praxus

Suprise, more short sighttedness by Europeans.

Confed999

No kidding, most of Europe shouldn't have access to much anyway.

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No man is free until all men are free - John Hossack
I agree completely with this Administration’s goal of a regime change in Iraq-John Kerry
even if that enforcement is mostly at the hands of the United States, a right we retain even if the Security Council fails to act-John Kerry
He may even miscalculate and slide these weapons off to terrorist groups to invite them to be a surrogate to use them against the United States. It’s the miscalculation that poses the greatest threat-John Kerry

Leader

It is not as if we do not have reason to worry that they might sell our enemies technology.