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Analysts worry over arms sale to PRC

Analysts worry over arms sale to PRC
2005-02-04 / Taiwan News, Staff Reporter / By Taijing Wu

The European Union's plan to lift a weapons-sale embargo on China would harm both the interests of the United States as well as the military status quo in the Asia Pacific region, Taiwanese parliamentarians and scholars said yesterday.

The European Union has long considered lifting the weapons-sale embargo over China. The initiative, however, has consistently drawn criticism from other parties, such as the U.S., Taiwan and Japan. The European Union decided to impose the embargo on China back in 1989 due to the Tiananmen Square incident, which took place on June 4 of that year.

The U.S. congress passed a Februaury resolution of 411 votes to three opposing the European Union plan to speed up the lifting of the embargo. The resolution said that such an act would endanger Taiwan and the U.S. troops' security in Asia.

A republican congressman elected in California said, during a debate on the resolution, that the move by the European Union would threaten Taiwan, which he said was one of Asia's most democratized countries and also a close partner of the U.S..

Another democrat congressman said that Europe has dissolved its ethical guidelines and is about to endanger U.S. military troops.

Professor Wu Chih-chung (吳?quot;中) Ph.D. of the Soochow University's Political Science Department told Taiwan News that in carrying out the plan, the European Union is seeking a new world order by allying and strengthening China.

"The countries that will be influenced first are the U.S., Japan and Taiwan. If China gains the high-tech military capacity of Europe, the military status quo in the Asia Pacific region will become extremely unbalanced.

However, as Taiwan doesn't have the ability to negotiate the issue with the European Union, it creates an opportunity for Taiwan to request further military assistance from the U.S," said Professor Wu Chih-chung.

"Europe is seeking a partner to counter the super-power status of the United States. However, it does not understand the threat that China represents to the island because the problems with which Taiwan must deal seem unimportant to the Europeans in comparison to the situation in Iraq or the long-term Israeli-Palestinian conflict," added Wu.

"Taiwan has become a victim of its own success," said the professor, "Europe sees that Taiwan still has some degree of exchange with China as there are charter flights, discussions on the 'three links' etc... and Europe seems to have the impression that China is the one that needs help rather than Taiwan. In fact, the behavior of the Taiwanese government is entirely defined by its enemy on the other side of the Taiwan Strait. No matter what Taiwan tries to do in terms of internal or foreign policy, Beijing perceives it as an attempt to move towards independence."

Washington also alleges that an end to the EU embargo could destabilize the Taiwan Strait and put the U.S. Seventh Fleet at risk.

Media reports said the EU regards the lifting of the embargo, which has limited practical effect, to be a symbolic move, in-keeping with the growing partnership between Europe and China.


LINK: http://www.etaiwannews.com/Taiwan/Politics/2005/02/04/1107482148.htm