EU considers lifting 14-year-old ban on arms sales to China

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, December 19, 2003

EU considers lifting 14-year-old ban on arms sales to China

Finally, after 14 years of embargo, EU began to consider lifting the ban on arms sale to China. If this welcome change in EU attitude toward this issue leads to the removal of the obstacle on Sino-EU cooperation, it will be in the interests of both China and EU.

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The moment when the news came unexpectedly

At noontime on December 12, a regular press conference held after the EU Summit Conference was proceeding in the news hall of the EU Council, Brussels. Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, the current rotating president of this EU Summit, stood on rostrum, reading the ��Conclusion of the Rotating Presidency�� which was just passed at the summit. Minutes passed and the press conference was drawing to an end, reporters were leaving. Just as this writer was about to leave, he suddenly heard Berlusconi mentioning things about China. He said that in response to French President Chrac��s proposal made at the just concluded EU Summit, the EU foreign ministers�� conference was required to deliberate matters concerning the ban on arms sales to China.

As the matter concerning ban on arms sales to China was not an item on the agenda of this EU Summit, Berlusconi��s remarks greatly astonished the reporters present. For China, this was, without doubt, the most important achievement gained by the EU Summit. It was the EU Summit��s first decision on reviewing the ban on arms sales to China since the EU imposed the prohibition in 1989. After the press conference, the writer went over the 26-page ��Conclusion of the Rotating Presidency�� and found that in this important decision, there was actually only one sentence which reads: The EU Summit requires that EU foreign ministers�� conference review the matter concerning ban on arms sales to China. However, on the basis of which, foreign media, including Associated Press (AP), reported that the EU had considered lifting the above-said ban.

The EU decision on prohibiting arms sales to China was made on 1989. The decision at that time actually also contained only one sentence: EU members terminate military cooperation and arms trade with China. Now 14 years have passed, the arms sales prohibition has become a ��longstanding, big and difficult�� problem restricting the further expansion of Sino-EU cooperation.

Judged from reporters' speeches given at the press conference, French President Chirac played a key role in the EU Summit��s decision on re-deliberating the ban on arms sales to China. In fact, however, among the EU members and within the EU Commission, France and President Chirac himself were not the only member country and person who proposed reviewing the prohibition on arms sales to China. Germany also took a positive attitude toward the issue. In his visit to China early this month, German Chancellor Schroeder expressed his willingness to work hard for an early end to the arms-sales ban. Not long ago, Chairman of EU Commission Romano Prodi also said that time was ripe for reconsidering the arms-sales ban. EU Trade Commissioner Rascal Lamy echoed the need to review the ban. It was against the above-mentioned background that people feel it is not far off when the EU will re-examine the arms sales ban.

Lifting the ban is in the interests of EU

Removing the ban is in the commercial interests of EU members�� military enterprises.

Perhaps it was lured by the massive commercial interests that the EU purposefully avoided some important issues when it decided in 1989 to impose the ban on arms sale to China. When the EU imposes a ban on arms sales to a third country, there are generally two options: total ��ban on arms sales�� and non-total ban. The former involves ��weaponry, ammunition, and equipment for military purposes��, which include mainly four categories of products: First, weaponry and ammunition for killing, such as guns and tanks. Second, weapon platforms, such as planes and warships. Third, non-weapon platforms, such as vehicles for military purposes. And Fourth, other supporting equipment, such as electronic equipment for military use. The latter includes only one category: weaponry and ammunition. The EU did not specify in their decision whether it was a total or non-total ban, nor did it make an explicit list of banned arms. Instead, it empowered its members to decide what can be sold and what cannot be sold to China. In

the mid-90s, the British government issued a statement on the matter concerning ban on arms sales to China: The EU ban on arms sales to China covered only lethal weapons, such as machine guns and ammunition, jets, helicopters for military use, warships, and vehicles for military purposes.

In fact, just during implementation of the ban, Britain and France both exported "equipment for military use" to China. Britain sold radar which can be used to search for targets on waters while France sold AS-365N Dolphin II helicopters.

Lifting the ban is the general trend

Ireland will act as the rotating presidency of the EU January 1, next year. The first EU foreign ministers�� meeting will be held in Brussels January 26-27, 2004. By then, will the EU foreign ministers put the ban on arms sales to China on their agenda? People will wait and see.

Things related to the EU are often very complicated. On the matter regarding the removal of the ban on arms sales, there have always been two voices within the EU: One supports lifting the ban, the other opposes. Not long ago, after Schroeder��s visit to China, a European Parliament member and member of the Tibet Team under it issued a statement, in which he opposed the removal of the ban and demanded the German government to maintain the 14-year-old ban. This shows that on this issue, obstructions of one kind or another will keep appearing and debate within the EU will continue for a period of time.

From a long-term point of view, removal of the ban on arms sales to China is inevitable. The ban lifting will broaden and substantiate the field of China-EU cooperation and will make bilateral relations richer and more comprehensive. A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson recently indicated that the EU ban on arms sales to China was a Cold War product which was unmatched with the comprehensive Sino-EU partnership, the spokesperson expressed the hope that the EU would try to solve the problem as soon as possible, thereby clearing away all obstacles to an all-round development of bilateral ties. Additionally, lifting the ban will contribute to reducing the EU��s trade deficit with China. EU��s current deficit of trade with China has amounted to 47 billion euro. And the EU is complaining about this. If the EU annuls the ban, then the new arms trade and military industry cooperation between China and the EU will help reduce its existing unfavorable balance of trade with China.

The above article on Page 2 of the Global Times December 15 was translated by PD Online staff member Lija

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