BEIJING, October 13 – The Chinese government called on the European Union to lift a ban on arms sales to China which has been in place since the Tiananmen Square massacre 14 years ago, state media reported.
The call came in a white paper on Sino-EU relations, which is the first of its kind published by Beijing and follows several China strategy papers issued by the EU, according to the Xinhua news agency.
The EU should lift its ban on arms sales to China at an early date so as to “remove barriers to greater bilateral cooperation on defense industry and technologies,” the document said according to Xinhua.
The EU ban on arms sales to China was imposed in late June 1989, three weeks after pro-democracy demonstrators were ruthlessly suppressed in and around Beijing’s Tiananmen Square.
Although the EU left it to its individual members to decide the scope of the ban, it appears to have been effective, forcing China to seek weapons deals elsewhere, especially in Russia.
The white paper urged the EU to handle the Taiwan issue “prudently,” meaning not allowing visits by any politicians from the island, which is considered a renegade province by Beijing.
The EU should not sell weapons to Taiwan or support the island’s entry into international organizations where only states can become members, the white paper said.
It also called on the EU to have no interaction with the Dalai Lama, Tibet’s exiled religious leader who is seen as a dangerous separatist by Beijing.
Despite all the do’s and don’ts, the document painted relations between China and the EU in rosy colors, saying the EU could wind up as China’s largest trading partner, up from number three now.
“China-EU relations now are better than any time in history,” the white paper said.
