United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice stepped up the transatlantic row about selling arms to China on Sunday with a sharply worded warning that the European Union should not upset the balance of power in a region in which it has no defence responsibilities.
Rice said Japan and South Korea — Washington’s two main allies in east Asia — are also opposed to the EU’s plans to lift its weapons ban, a move they fear could allow China to buy sophisticated European technology for use against their troops.
”Our view is that it is not appropriate,” she told a press conference in Seoul on Sunday, before arriving in Beijing on Sunday night.
”The EU should do nothing to contribute to a circumstance in which Chinese military modernisation draws on EU technology. It is the US, not Europe, that has defended the Pacific.”
Her comments — by far the sternest admonition by a US official — suggest the White House is gearing up for a diplomatic fight to maintain the embargo, which was imposed after the Chinese government sent tanks and troops to clear democracy demonstrators from in and around Tiananmen Square in 1989.
Beijing’s communist leaders have never expressed remorse for hundreds of their citizens killed, or held a public investigation of who was to blame.
Nevertheless, Europe has insisted that China is a changed country.
American concern about the implications of Europe revising its policy has raised the prospect of a trade war between the EU and the US.
The White House is particularly worried about Beijing’s increased pressure on Taiwan.
Last week, the Chinese legislature passed a law endorsing military action against the island if it moves towards formal independence from the mainland.
Last month, the US and Japan declared for the first time that they have a shared strategic objective in maintaining peace in the Taiwan Strait.
The fragile status quo is also being threatened by an arms race. China has steadily increased the number of missiles pointing at Taiwan to 700, and last week it approved a 12,6% increase in its annual military budget, part of which will be spent on new submarines and amphibious landing craft for use in a possible cross-straits conflict.
Defence analysts say lifting the EU ban would allow China to buy advanced software, avionics and communications equipment that would narrow its technology gap with the US.
Taiwan’s Cabinet has responded by recommending spending $121-billion on Patriot anti-missile systems and other US arms.
Hours before arriving in China on the final leg of her Asian tour, Rice said the modernisation of the People’s Liberation Army is a growing strategic challenge, adding: ”There are concerns about the rise of Chinese military spendings, and potentially Chinese military power and its increasing sophistication.”
On Friday, President Jacques Chirac reaffirmed French support for lifting the arms embargo. Germany has also been a vocal advocate for changing the policy.
US congressional members have already threatened a trade war with the EU if Brussels goes ahead with the plan.
The United Kingdom has tried to find a compromise between the two sides. While endorsing the lifting of the ban, it has proposed a tougher EU code of conduct on arms sales, to restrict the types of equipment sold to China.
Europe had hoped to lift the embargo on May 8 during a formal meeting between the EU and China. But the plans were thrown into disarray when Beijing toughened its stance over Taiwan.
However, a spokesperson for Javier Solana, the European council’s foreign-policy representative, said the EU’s position on the embargo has not changed.
”But we are in a more complex environment. That makes the initial timeline a little more complicated.” — Guardian Unlimited Â