U.S., France, Differ on Arms to China

Jan. 28, 2004

WASHINGTON, Jan. 28 (UPI) -- The arms embargo against China should stand, the State Department said Wednesday, in disagreement once again with the French.

On Monday French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin urged his EU counterparts meeting in Brussels to lift the embargo that, he said, "dates back more than 15 years and no longer corresponds with the political reality of the contemporary world."

On Tuesday, French President Jacques Chirac, meeting in Paris with visiting Chinese President Hu Jintao, said the embargo, imposed after the 1989 Tiananmen Square killings, no longer makes sense.

European Commission President Romano Prodi has called for the policy to be reevaluated. And last month German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said arms sales to China should be resumed.

State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Wednesday that the United States has had senior-level discussions with France and other European Union countries on the subject.

"We believe that the U.S. and European prohibitions on arms sales are complementary, were imposed for the same reasons -- specifically, serious human rights abuses -- and that those reasons remain valid today," Boucher said.

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