The EU is determined to lift a 16-year-old arms embargo against China but hasn't decided when to do so, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said yesterday.
The US strongly opposes lifting the EU embargo, saying that could threaten Taiwan and US forces in Asia. Solana said EU countries were still debating when and how it might be lifted.
"We want to take a decision that is part of a solution, not part of a problem, and therefore it has to be well explained and understood by everybody," Solana said.
The embargo was imposed after China's leaders sent tanks and troops to crush demonstrations in Tiananmen Square in 1989, killing hundreds and possibly thousands. China has never given a full accounting of the incident.
EU countries led by France and Germany have pushed to lift the arms ban, calling it a historical relic that impedes diplomatic and trade ties with China.
"We think it is part of history, this embargo, but we have to find a manner and the moment in which it can be done without any difficulty, any problem," Solana said.
Solana's comments point to new obstacles to lifting the embargo, including a Chinese law adopted earlier this year authorizing force against Taiwan if it refuses to unify with China.
Critics have long argued the embargo shouldn't be lifted until China allows greater political and religious freedoms for its people.
Meanwhile, Washington has continued to express concern about annual increases in China's military budget. A Pentagon report issued in July said China is determined to project military power beyond Taiwan and is buying new weapon systems from Russia while modernizing its tactics and improving training.
Solana's comments follow a China-EU summit in Beijing on Monday. A joint statement issued afterward said the EU "reaffirmed its willingness to continue to work toward lifting the embargo."
Solana didn't say if Beijing was asked to meet any conditions in return, although in the past he has said China would have to live up to human-rights standards.
However, he reiterated that the embargo, when lifted, would be replaced with a "code of conduct" governing what weapons and technologies could be sold to China and for what purposes.
Solana denied US objections had blocked the embargo's lifting, but indicated Washington's views had been taken into account.
Washington has threatened to retaliate if the ban is lifted by limiting transfers of military technology to European nations.
also see story:
Blair tells China to embrace change
NEXT GENERATION: The four plants in the Central Taiwan Science Park, designated Fab 25, would consist of four 1.4-nanometer wafer manufacturing plants, TSMC said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) plans to begin construction of four new plants later this year, with the aim to officially launch production of 2-nanometer semiconductor wafers by late 2028, Central Taiwan Science Park Bureau director-general Hsu Maw-shin (許茂新) said. Hsu made the announcement at an event on Friday evening celebrating the Central Taiwan Science Park’s 22nd anniversary. The second phase of the park’s expansion would commence with the initial construction of water detention ponds and other structures aimed at soil and water conservation, Hsu said. TSMC has officially leased the land, with the Central Taiwan Science Park having handed over the
The Philippines is working behind the scenes to enhance its defensive cooperation with Taiwan, the Washington Post said in a report published on Monday. “It would be hiding from the obvious to say that Taiwan’s security will not affect us,” Philippine Secretary of National Defense Gilbert Teodoro Jr told the paper in an interview on Thursday last week. Although there has been no formal change to the Philippines’ diplomatic stance on recognizing Taiwan, Manila is increasingly concerned about Chinese encroachment in the South China Sea, the report said. The number of Chinese vessels in the seas around the Philippines, as well as Chinese
URBAN COMBAT: FIM-92 Stinger shoulder-fired missiles from the US made a rare public appearance during early-morning drills simulating an invasion of the Taipei MRT The ongoing Han Kuang military exercises entered their sixth day yesterday, simulating repelling enemy landings in Penghu County, setting up fortifications in Tainan, laying mines in waters in Kaohsiung and conducting urban combat drills in Taipei. At 5am in Penghu — part of the exercise’s first combat zone — participating units responded to a simulated rapid enemy landing on beaches, combining infantry as well as armored personnel. First Combat Zone Commander Chen Chun-yuan (陳俊源) led the combined armed troops utilizing a variety of weapons systems. Wang Keng-sheng (王鏗勝), the commander in charge of the Penghu Defense Command’s mechanized battalion, said he would give
AUKUS: The Australian Ambassador to the US said his country is working with the Pentagon and he is confident that submarine issues will be resolved Australian Ambassador to the US Kevin Rudd on Friday said that if Taiwan were to fall to China’s occupation, it would unleash China’s military capacities and capabilities more broadly. He also said his country is working with the Pentagon on the US Department of Defense’s review of the AUKUS submarine project and is confident that all issues raised will be resolved. Rudd, who served as Australian prime minister from 2007 to 2010 and for three months in 2013, made the remarks at the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado and stressed the longstanding US-Australia alliance and his close relationship with the US Undersecretary
RSS