Media Report: MEP Published an Article to Express her Objection to China Weapon Sales

The Epoch Times quoted a report made by the Central News Agency that Ms. Erika Mann, a Member of the European Parliament, published an article in the Wall Street Journal on March 17th, arguing that the European Union should not lift the arms embargo to China. In the article, she stressed that many legislators on both sides of the Atlantic firmly oppose the EU’s intention to lift the embargo.

This article, entitled “They will call us hypocrites”, pointed out the EU’s lifting of the arms embargo is equivalent to flouting the values that the EU stands for. It is also a heavy blow to those people who devoted themselves to promoting democratic reform in China.

Ms. Mann commented, “the European Parliament has made its concerns about China abundantly clear in the past three years. The discussion of the European Parliament last November led to a consensus that Beijing would need to make concrete steps toward human rights improvement before the embargo would be lifted. The European Parliament also specifically called on China to ratify the 1996 U.N. Convention on Civil and Political Rights.”

Many European countries are committed to lifting the embargo. As a key political figure of Germany’s Social Democratic party, Ms. Mann said the rationale for such a move is a mix of pragmatism and real politics and it doesn’t add up to a responsible policy.

She pointed out that these “pragmatists” find no reason why the European ammunition industry should be cut off from winning lucrative weaponry deals while China is striving in building up its military capabilities. In addition, these advocates argue that China has joined the WTO and it should be rewarded for its gradual progress in becoming a ‘normal’ member of the international community.

Some of these advocates also reassure the public that lifting the arms embargo does not mean a sudden flood of European weaponry to China. They claim the new code of conduct will set effective restrictions to prevent transfers of sensitive military goods and technologies. The pragmatists also argue deviously that the increase would not encourage a Chinese attack on Taiwan, since China supposedly already possesses these capabilities.

These pragmatists also say that arms exports from countries like Germany are always subject to the strict control of national legislation. The message they try to deliver is, “nothing very serious will change, but lifting the embargo will be symbolically important.”

Ms. Erika Mann stressed that this symbolism, in her view and those of her colleagues, is the very reason why the arms embargo must be kept in force. In an open letter that she wrote to the German Chancellor Gerhard Schroder with three other German Members of the European Parliament, she said, “although the European Union consists of twenty-five member states that diversify in many ways, the citizens of the European Union share one set of fervent values: democracy, the rule of law, civil rights and peaceful relationships between nations”.

She continued, “These principles form the foundation for the EU’s growth and prosperity. All of the eight nations of Central and Eastern Europe who joined the EU last year sought membership almost immediately after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Certainly, they wanted to share the EU’s economic opportunities but, equally important, they also wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to set up a political framework dedicated to the promotion of democracy and human values”. She emphasized that if the EU wants to avoid charges of hypocrisy, it must refuse to support regimes that are in open conflict with its core values.