H
HagiaSophia
Guest
Poor France - never can put a deal together on top of the table —
"…Cecilia Malmstrom, a Swedish MEP, said the EU should not sell its soul. “China may be a nice business opportunity, but it is still the world’s biggest dictatorship,” she added.
Sanctions were imposed in 1989 after the Tiananmen Square massacre. France has led the drive to lift them, deeming it misguided to treat an emerging economic superpower - and the host of the next Olympic Games - as a pariah state.
Behind the French move is a subtle attempt to draw China into a strategic alliance to counter American power.
Human Rights Watch accused Paris yesterday of cynical realpolitik.
“France and some other EU members have made it clear that they no longer want to let human rights stand in the way of making money,” it said.
The unanimous assent of all 25 EU states is needed to lift the embargo. Britain, Holland, and the Scandinavian states have refused to budge, accusing China of offering “absolutely nothing” to assuage critics.
Britain is demanding an export code that stops “a race to the bottom”, banning any one EU state from selling China weapons already denied by another EU state. So far France alone has balked at the terms.
The Bush administration has been infuriated by the French effort to plug China’s arms gap, adamant that Beijing’s real purpose is to overrun Taiwan…"
“…Euro-MPs backed the embargo in November, accusing Beijing of stirring up trouble in the South China Sea, repressing Tibet, and executing more than 10,000 prisoners.”
telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/12/09/wchina09.xml&sSheet=/portal/2004/12/09/ixportal.html
"…Cecilia Malmstrom, a Swedish MEP, said the EU should not sell its soul. “China may be a nice business opportunity, but it is still the world’s biggest dictatorship,” she added.
Sanctions were imposed in 1989 after the Tiananmen Square massacre. France has led the drive to lift them, deeming it misguided to treat an emerging economic superpower - and the host of the next Olympic Games - as a pariah state.
Behind the French move is a subtle attempt to draw China into a strategic alliance to counter American power.
Human Rights Watch accused Paris yesterday of cynical realpolitik.
“France and some other EU members have made it clear that they no longer want to let human rights stand in the way of making money,” it said.
The unanimous assent of all 25 EU states is needed to lift the embargo. Britain, Holland, and the Scandinavian states have refused to budge, accusing China of offering “absolutely nothing” to assuage critics.
Britain is demanding an export code that stops “a race to the bottom”, banning any one EU state from selling China weapons already denied by another EU state. So far France alone has balked at the terms.
The Bush administration has been infuriated by the French effort to plug China’s arms gap, adamant that Beijing’s real purpose is to overrun Taiwan…"
“…Euro-MPs backed the embargo in November, accusing Beijing of stirring up trouble in the South China Sea, repressing Tibet, and executing more than 10,000 prisoners.”
telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/12/09/wchina09.xml&sSheet=/portal/2004/12/09/ixportal.html
