The EU is unlikely to lift its 15-year-old ban on arms sales to China soon, due to disagreements among the bloc's members, the EU external relations chief said yesterday.
"I can hardly imagine an early decision," Benita Ferrero-Waldner told reporters on arrival for an EU foreign ministers' meeting to discuss Europe's relations with China.
The issue of lifting the embargo has drawn divisions among -- and within -- the 25 EU nations.
It has also has put trans-Atlantic ties under strain, with the US voicing concern after China adopted a law authorizing military action against Taiwan if Taipei declared independence.
Diplomatic sources suggested the embargo would remain in place at least until next year.
Britain, the Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden want to retain the ban on arms sales, while Germany and France have long urged fellow EU members to lift the embargo imposed after the Chinese military crushed student protests on Tienanmen Square in 1989.
German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder has been keen to lift the ban, but misgivings have surfaced in his coalition of Social Democrats and Greens and among the conservative opposition.
On Thursday, he told the German parliament that the ban hindered Europe's efforts to boost trade with China.
"The lifting of the embargo does not have the goal of increasing arms deliveries to China. The core question is how the EU and Germany can pursue their interests toward China in the medium and long term," he said.
German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer sounded more cautious, saying a greater Chinese commitment to human rights would help craft an EU consensus on lifting the embargo.
"I appeal to China: It can contribute a lot to making such a consensus happen," Fischer told the legislature.
On Thursday, the European Parliament entered the fray, demanding the EU arms ban remain in place because of China's shaky human rights record. In a nonbinding 431 to 85 vote, with 31 abstentions, the EU assembly meeting in Strasbourg, backed a motion by German Conservative Elmar Brok "not to lift the arms embargo."
The European Parliament called Taiwan "a model of democracy for the whole of China," and expressed regret that Europe's ties with Beijing were only progressing in terms of "trade and economic fields, without any substantial achievement as regards human rights and democracy issues."
The parliament also expressed "deepest concern [at the] large number of missiles in southern China aimed across the Taiwan Straits'' and about the recently adopted anti-secession law.
Meanwhile, a EU envoy promised Japan yesterday the group would take into account Tokyo's opposition to weapons sales to China. Annalisa Giannella, an EU troubleshooter on the embargo, met with Japanese lawmakers who voiced concerned about selling arms to China.
"I think there is an interest on both sides [Japan and the EU] to have more dialogue on strategic issues," said Giannella, who is an aide to EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana.
"I have reiterated that the European Union does not want to modify the strategic balance in this region," she said.
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
EYE ON STRAIT: The US spending bill ‘doubles security cooperation funding for Taiwan,’ while also seeking to counter the influence of China US President Joe Biden on Saturday signed into law a US$1.2 trillion spending package that includes US$300 million in foreign military financing to Taiwan, as well as funding for Taipei-Washington cooperative projects. The US Congress early on Saturday overwhelmingly passed the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act 2024 to avoid a partial shutdown and fund the government through September for a fiscal year that began six months ago. Under the package, the Defense Appropriations Act would provide a US$27 billion increase from the previous fiscal year to fund “critical national defense efforts, including countering the PRC [People’s Republic of China],” according to a summary
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)