By JAMES KIRKUP,
POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT
TONY Blair was last night attacked by human rights campaigners for encouraging the Chinese government in its efforts to lift a European Union embargo on arms sales.
At a Downing Street meeting with Wen Jiabao, the Chinese premier, Mr Blair made what the Chinese leader called “positive statements” about Beijing’s campaign for full trading rights with European nations, including access to weapons.
The EU has banned arms sales to China since the 1989 Tiannanmen Square massacre, and campaigners say that the ban must be upheld until China gives more proof of its commitment to human rights and democracy.
The EU is reviewing the arms ban under pressure from France, which has led efforts to boost commercial military ties with China. Mr Blair visited Paris on Sunday where he held a day of talks with the president, Jacques Chirac, and the prime minister, Jean Pierre Raffarin.
Following yesterday’s ministerial meeting in London, one Chinese official said Beijing was “encouraged” by Mr Blair’s stance on lifting the military embargo. Downing Street refused to comment about Mr Blair’s meeting, or even to state the British government’s policy on the embargo. “It is under review. We are not commenting,” a spokesman said.
Mr Blair’s apparent concession to China was lambasted by China’s critics.
“It’s far too soon for a political gift of this nature to be granted,’’ said Alison Reynolds of the Tibet Support Group, pointing to China’s continued occupation of the Himalayan state and calling Mr Blair’s stance “entirely inappropriate”. The Campaign Against the Arms Trade also called for the embargo to be maintained until China’s human rights record improves.
Forty-four MPs have signed a Commons motion tabled by Labour’s Harry Cohen that calls for the arms blockade to be upheld on the grounds that China “continues to abuse human rights, to occupy Tibet and to repress people who engage in non-violent political activity.”
Despite his government’s erstwhile “ethical foreign policy”, Mr Blair is no stranger to lobbying on behalf of British arms companies, which include BAE Systems, Europe’s biggest defence contractor.
Earlier this year, The Scotsman revealed that the Prime Minister was leading efforts to lift the EU arms embargo on Libya. BAE has since begun talks with the Libyan government.
Mr Wen yesterday signalled that developing China’s economy will take priority over granting basic rights for its 1.3 billion population. “China needs to focus on the economy – our first priority is to provide food and basic daily needs,” he said when asked about human rights.
Britain appears to be making similar calculations. The UK government forecasts that China’s fast-expanding economy will become the second largest in the world in the next 15 years, and Western leaders are competing to build the best commercial relations with Beijing.
In Britain, Mr Wen’s trip has been treated as an official visit with full diplomatic fanfare and a meeting with the Queen scheduled tomorrow. Also timed to coincide with the visit is the signing of commercial deals that will result in companies, including BP, investing $1 billion in China.
On a European tour that has included a visit to Berlin, Mr Wen has also been pressing European leaders to grant China the status of a full market economy, which would reduce EU tariffs on some Chinese imports.
“I hope very much that we get a successful outcome to this for China,” Mr Blair said at a press conference with Mr Wen, pledging that Britain will give China “every support in that endeavour’’.
As part of building better relations with Beijing, Mr Blair and Mr Wen set out a plan for an annual Sino-British summit. Mr Blair promised to visit China next year, his second visit in two years: his trip to Beijing and Shanghai last summer was overshadowed by the death of the government arms scientist David Kelly.
Outside Downing Street, about 40 pro-Tibet campaigners jeered and sounded horns in protest at the welcome for Mr Wen, whose government has controlled Tibet since 1951.
The Dalai Lama, Tibet’s spiritual leader-in-exile who fled the nation in 1959, will also visit Britain later this month, spending a day in Dunfermline and visiting the Usher Hall in Edinburgh.
