EFL - I’ve commented before on France’s turn to China both to try to keep the French defense mfg base alive but also as a way to oppose US strength
France is pushing the European Union to lift a 14-year-old ban on weapons sales to China and has succeeded in putting the issue on the organization’s agenda for the spring. "The hope is that it will happen in April," a French diplomatic official said Monday after a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels. He noted, however, that several crucial European countries favored maintaining the ban. The embargo was imposed in response to the Chinese military’s killing of pro-democracy demonstrators near Tiananmen Square in 1989. The United States imposed a similar embargo.
| But now those guys aren't dead anymore... |
But France and Germany have both argued that China has made sufficient strides since then in reforming its government and economy to warrant the resumption of weapons sales. "When you look at the countries subject to similar EU sanctions, the question is whether China should be in the same company," the French official said. Besides China, the EU maintains weapons embargoes against Myanmar, Sudan and Zimbabwe. But France’s effort, coming as the country received the Chinese president, Hu Jintao, with a lavish ceremony, was derided by some officials, who argue that China’s human rights abuses remain too glaring to overlook. "A desire to curry favor with the Chinese president during his state visit to France is no excuse for rethinking a longstanding European policy rooted in principle," Graham Watson, head of the Liberal Democrats in the European Parliament, said in a statement.
| Everyone had a good laugh, the conversation turned to sports, and they sent out for pizza... |
In fact, France stands to benefit handsomely if it succeeds in ending the arms embargo.
| Do tell? Whoever would have expected that? |
China, the world’s fastest-growing major economy, has one of the largest defense budgets in the world and is spending heavily to modernize its armed forces. Because of the Western arms embargoes, the country has been largely restricted to buying Russian military hardware in recent years. But Beijing has a long list of items it would like to buy from Europe, particularly French Mirage fighter jets and German stealth submarines.
Read the rest. Last Dec. Israel admitted that technologies from the cancelled LAVI fighter were sold to China. The LAVI was based on the F-16. |