EU/CHINA: Ireland continues to support the lifting of a 15-year EU ban on selling arms to China, despite growing doubts about the wisdom of an early change in policy.
Beijing yesterday urged the EU to stick to its plan to lift the arms ban, saying it should not be delayed by fears over a new Chinese law authorising the invasion of Taiwan if the island pursues independence.
Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern said last night the Government did not think it appropriate to continue with the embargo, because of the continuing improvement in EU-China relations. He said President Bush had told the Taoiseach last week of the strong US opposition to lifting the embargo. He also acknowledged that China's renewed warnings to Taiwan against secession had not helped Beijing's case.
But he added: "Our position, and we made it quite clear, is that we support the lifting of the arms embargo. We have no beneficial interest in this, in that we don't do arms. But we are in principle in favour of it being lifted. We don't think it is appropriate in the context of current EU-China relations, which are particularly good and getting better all the time."
A lifting of the embargo should be subject to a stringent code of conduct being put in place, and Mr Ahern believed there should be no increase in arms sales to China as a result. He said the proposals in relation to Taiwan were not making it any easier for China to get support for the lifting of the embargo.
"We also have made clear at EU level that Ireland has particular issues in relation to human rights that we have raised constantly with the Chinese," Mr Ahern said.
"Our view is that in principle it should be lifted and that is the view generally within the EU. It is a fairly tortuous discussion . . ."
Overall, the EU seems to have bowed to strong pressure from Washington, and signalled it was reconsidering its plan to lift the arms ban, imposed after the bloody crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators in Tiananmen Square in 1989.
The Chinese are furious that the ban looks set to stay in place because of the law, known as the anti-secession law, which was passed by China's annual parliament on March 14th. It gives Beijing a unilateral legal basis to use military force against Taiwan should the island declare formal independence.
The Chinese insist the legislation is aimed at peaceful reunification and containing Taiwan separatist forces, but Washington has successfully used the law to lobby its European allies to delay lifting the ban.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao described the embargo as "political discrimination".
Mr Liu said: "Linking these two issues is unreasonable. The passage of the anti-secession law is an effort to ease tensions across the Taiwan Straits. The key to ease tensions is to check Taiwan's secessionary forces and to stop all secessionist activities."
As trade ties between China and France and Germany flourish, both countries have pushed hard for an end to the EU ban.
However, Washington has aggressively argued to keep the ban in place, saying it raised the prospect of European arms being used against American troops if the US was ever forced to defend Taiwan against an attack from the mainland.
The US, while banning arms sales to China, is Taiwan's main armourer.
Even though Washington has been making strenuous efforts to rebuild relations with the EU strained by the war in Iraq, it has refused to budge on this issue.
Secretary of state Condoleezza Rice said in Beijing at the weekend the EU "should do nothing" to alter the military balance of power in Asia.
Dr Rice has also expressed concern about China's military build-up - its defence budget will increase by 11.6 per cent this year.
EU weapons are not high on the Chinese shopping list - Israeli and Russian arms suppliers fill most of their needs already.
However, there are some high-tech weapons that the Chinese might be interested in.