Prodi : Lift China arms embargo
Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi has called on his European Union partners to work towards lifting an EU weapon embargo on China. The weapon embargo was put in place after the horrible events on Tiananmen Square in 1989. Democracy protests there ended in a bloody reaction from the Chinese army. Italy wants to increase trade with China, and believes the embargo hurts relations with China. France is the main supporter for a lifting of the embargo, and so was former German Chancellor Gerard Schroder. Chancellor Merkel is believed to be less enthusiastic. The United States is opposed to lifting the weapons embargo.
France is the prime European supporter of lifting the ban, arguing it would be a mostly symbolic recognition of China’s growing clout, while Italy has so far appeared to be among the less vocal nations.
However, in late 2004, Gianfranco Fini, Italy’s then foreign minister, was quoted in the Italian media as saying Rome favored ending the arms embargo. Wen had pressed Europe to lift the ban at a summit with the European Union in Helsinki earlier this month but emerged only with a pledge to “carry forward work towards lifting the embargo.” Chinese officials have called the embargo “outdated” and “a product of the Cold War.”The United States strongly opposes lifting the ban, citing China’s growing military expenditures and a controversial law enacted in 2005 giving Beijing the legal justification for any potential military aggression against Taiwan.
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Administrator @ September 18, 2006