France calls to lift China arms embargo

It seems quite hypocritical for Miss Alliot-Marie to say that it is illogical not to end the European Union Arms Embargo, since China has also won the Olympics bid for 2008. Calling for an end to the arms embargo at a time when China's human rights records have worsened is shameful. The French and all the countries backing this proposal want to sell China the weapons that will be used on Tibetans and Chinese people. They want to make profit by supplying arms to a government that is currently committing horrendous crimes against its own people and the people of Tibet.
I am surprised that rather than calling for a protest of the Beijing 2008 Olympics, they want to also give them access to more advanced weapons. Lets not forget what happened in Rwanda, many of the weapons that were used to commit genocide there were bought from France.

CHANNELNEWSASIA.com

France calls to lift China arms embargo
Posted: 15 March 2007 2301 hrs


TOKYO : France's defence minister on Thursday renewed her government's call to lift the EU arms embargo on China, denouncing opposition to the move as illogical.

Michele Alliot-Marie made the remarks in Japan, which with the United States has strongly protested French-led moves to end the embargo.

"There is a lack of logic in the position of some," Alliot-Marie said before a meeting with her Japanese counterpart Fumio Kyuma.

She called it "paradoxical" to "maintain the embargo for political reasons while at the same time giving China the Olympics, which are supposed to go solely to countries that respect international rules."

Alliot-Marie said lifting the embargo would not pose a threat, arguing that European and French rules on arms exports "are even stricter than the rules of the embargo."

Outgoing French President Jacques Chirac has been a chief proponent of ending the arms embargo, which was imposed after China's bloody crackdown on pro-democracy students in Tiananmen Square in 1989.

Japan and the United States have protested the move and voiced concern about China's military spending, which is due to rise some 18 percent this year. READ FULL ARTICLE