Tiananmen aside, EU readies to lift arms ban
By Antoaneta Bezlova
BEIJING - The new Chinese leadership is set to get a major boost to its legitimacy and military ambitions as British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw has confirmed in Beijing that the European Union is ready to lift its 15-year-old ban on arms sales to China imposed after the Tiananmen Square massacre.
Straw, who is scheduled to hold meetings with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing, arrived in China on Thursday as Chinese leaders were making plans, under the shroud of secrecy, for the funeral of deposed Communist Party leader Zhao Ziyang, who was purged for opposing the military assault on unarmed students during the 1989 Tiananmen pro-democracy protests.
Beijing, which fears that Zhao's funeral could trigger anti-government protests and revive demands for the rehabilitation of student democracy leaders, is preparing a tightly scripted funeral for the deposed leader to prevent a public show of support for his democratic cause.
State television and radio have kept mum over Zhao's death, which took place in a Beijing hospital on Monday, while Chinese newspapers ran a 50-word report on their inside pages.
A massive show of public grief for the 85-year-old deceased leader who opposed the Tiananmen massacre could become an embarrassing event for Chinese leaders. The Chinese government claims the arms embargo imposed after the military crackdown is a "product of the Cold War", but displays of public dissent could indicate the opposite.
The United Kingdom is the latest European country to join the efforts of France and Germany to persuade other EU members to lift the arms sanctions. Straw said last week that he expected the arms ban to be lifted "more likely than not" in the next six months while Luxembourg holds the EU presidency. The UK will take over the presidency from Luxembourg in the second half of the year.
In the meantime, the United States has waged an intense behind-the-scenes battle to dissuade the EU from lifting the ban. The White House has warned Britain that it would not tolerate the prospect of European military technology being used to threaten US soldiers in their missions in the Far East.
Washington remains unconvinced that Beijing has made enough progress on human-rights issues and cites widespread imprisonment and torture of political and religious dissidents. In a report released this month, New York-based Human Rights Watch said that despite some progress in recent years, China remains a "highly repressive state".
More significant, Washington is worried about the possibility of China fulfilling its potential to become a military superpower by purchasing state-of-the-art equipment and technology, which could be used in a forceful campaign to reunify Taiwan with the mainland.
Under the Taiwan Relations Act, the United States is obliged to defend the island if China attacks. In March, China's legislators plan to debate a new "anti-secession law" that would legitimize the use of military force against the democratically ruled island.
Beijing claims the arms embargo imposed after the 1989 military crackdown is anachronistic and does not tally with the blossoming relations between China and the European Union.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Kong Quan dismissed concerns that dropping the embargo would lead to a sharp increase in arms purchases by China. "Lifting the embargo will certainly not lead to massive imports of weapons because China adheres to a defensive principle in national defense," Kong told a regular press briefing in Beijing on Thursday.
However, data released last month indicated that the European Union almost doubled its arms sales to China between 2002 and 2003. According to information in the EU's official journal in December, France granted 171 million euros (US$221 million) of licenses for arms sales to China in 2003, Italy 127 million euros and the UK 112 million euros - figures well above the previous year's tallies.
In statements made before his trip to China, Straw tried to allay fears by announcing that Britain will push for a revised EU code of conduct on arms exports coupled with a set of measures to exchange information on weapons sales. This, he said, would mean that arms controls on China would remain as tight as they were under the embargo.
"The replacement regime would be stronger than the embargo because it has the force of law, and we are going to strengthen it by ensuring that there is transparency among EU partners ... not just on denials but also approvals," Straw was quoted as saying last week.
But the United States is deeply skeptical of such assurances.
This month the administration of US President George W Bush imposed penalties against some of China's largest companies for aiding Iran's efforts to improve its ballistic missiles. US officials found Chinese companies guilty despite repeated vows by Beijing to curb its sales of missile technology.
The United States is not the only country with strategic concerns about the lifting of the embargo. Japan, too, is nervous.
Before Straw arrived in Beijing, his counterpart in Tokyo, Nobutaka Machimira, told him Japan is firmly opposed to the controversial move. Apart from watching Beijing's military ambitions nervously, Tokyo is worried that a confrontation between the United States and China over Taiwan would certainly draw Japan into the conflict.
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