It has been rumoured that the European Union (EU) may decide to lift its 15 year arms embargo on China at the upcoming EU China Summit on 8 December 2004 in the Netherlands . This comes at the instigation of France and Germany following intense pressure from China. It is further speculated that the UK will not stand in the way of this, a development which would be a blow to human rights in Tibet and China and to international relations in the area given the current tensions in the Taiwan Strait. China would use the lifting of the ban as an important propaganda victory. It would also remove yet another incentive for China to improve substantively its human rights record and live up to its international human rights obligations.

The arms embargo was brought into effect following world-wide revulsion at the events in Tiananmen Square in 1989. Opponents to the ban suggest that the current (incomplete) EU Code of Conduct on the arms trade will provide a safety net and that lifting the ban would bring China in from the cold so to speak. However, arms trade analysts have stated that though the arms embargo is not without its difficulties (e.g the selling of armoured vehicle parts to China and Burma as documented in early 2004 by 55 organisations such as Amnesty International and Saferworld), at the very least it is a legally binding agreement, whereas the Code of Conduct is subject to even more interpretation and is only politically binding. 572 MEPs to 72 voted to maintain the arms embargo because of China's poor human rights record on 18 November 2004.

The arms embargo is also important for symbolic reasons- it underlines China's extremely poor human rights record and occupation of Tibet. China continues to refuse to deal with the events of Tiananmen Square. To date, a number of dissidents from the Tiananmen Square remain imprisoned and there is still an army of occupation in Tibet. The USA, who are concerned about the situation in Taiwan, is apparently firmly opposed to the EU lifting its ban on selling arms to China, despite many US companies anxious to do business with China.

China identified the lifting of the EU arms embargo as a priority in its first EU Strategy Paper in October 2003 for symbolic as well as practical reasons in that it is determined to gain access to more technologically advanced weaponry.

Source: Free Tibet Campaign