The EU’s 20-year arms embargo on Beijing is unlikely to be lifted in the near future because of China’s failure to meet three conditions that have been set by the EU, a Brussels-based human rights group said yesterday, quoting European Commissioner for External Relations and European Neighborhood Policy Benita Ferrero-Waldner.
In its latest newsletter, Human Rights Without Frontiers (HRWF) also requested that the EU maintain the embargo as a bargaining chip to urge Beijing to remove its missiles aimed at Taiwan.
The EU placed an embargo on China in 1989 following the Tiananmen Square Massacre, in which Beijing violently cracked down on a student democracy movement.
The newsletter said the three conditions were that China had to agree to ratify the UN International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights; free those jailed for their involvement in the Tiananmen Square protests and abolish its “re-education through labor” system of imprisonment without trial.”
HRWF director Willy Fautre said the removal of the ban should also hinge on two other conditions: China must remove the 1,500 missiles deployed along its southeast coast targeting Taiwan, and Beijing must formally renounce the use of force against Taiwan.
Fautre said these two conditions were important both to Europe and Taiwan.
He added that years of dialogue with China on improving its human rights situation had achieved “no concrete results.”
“Over 20 years, there has not been any progress in the fields of democracy, rule of law and human rights. Moreover, in the last few years, Beijing has increased the number of missiles pointed at Taiwan,” he said.
Despite repeated moves by President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) to ease tensions between both countries, Beijing has not reduced its threat and the international community remains silent, Fautre said.
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