(Please contact Free Tibet Campaign if acting after 30 March 2005)

Straw says EU China arms embargo will be lifted (update to 17 December 2004) Free Tibet Campaign is deeply disappointed at the UK Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw's comments yesterday to a House of Commons select committee, stating that it was "more likely than not" that the EU China arms embargo would be lifted before the UK takes over the EU Presidency in July 2005 and that he supported this. Of further concern was Straw's comment that he"understood China's argument, that to lump them in with, say, Burma and Zimbabwe is not appropriate". Effectively this means that China no longer wants to be considered a human rights pariah and the lifting of the embargo helps demonstrate that. Unfortunately, the EU appears to have capitulated to China's demands, thus removing yet another incentive for China substantively to improve its human rights record.

The Foreign Secretary will be visiting China in January 2005 (date to be confirmed) and will be able to point to his support for the lifting of the embargo. Previously the UK had been one of the EU countries that were more cautious about the lifting of the embargo. The Guardian reported on 12 January similar comments on the likelihood of the embargo being lifted from senior officals in the Luxembourg Government.

It was only on December 8 2004, at the EU China summit, that the EU decided not to lift the arms embargo, although it gave notice that this decision would be revisited to allow for a tightening up of the EU Code of Conduct on arms exports. Opposition to the lifting of the embargo had come from Tibet groups worldwide and human rights organisations such as Amnesty International, as well as the US Government (see 17 December Urgent Campaign). The EU hopes that it has done enough to satisfy profound US reservations through plans to tighten up the Code of Conduct on arms exports. However, as organisations such as Amnesty International have pointed out, the EU Code is a code full of holes; it is a political rather than a legally binding agreement and is subject to even wider interpretations than the embargo as to what is acceptable for export. Pressure to lift the embargo came at the instigation of France and Germany following intense lobbying from China who had identified it as a major strategic objective of its relationship with EU.

The arms embargo was imposed following world-wide revulsion at the events in Tiananmen Square in 1989. It sends an important signal to China highlighting the country's extremely poor human rights record and occupation of Tibet. China continues to refuse to deal with the events of Tiananmen Square. To date, a number of dissidents from Tiananmen Square remain imprisoned and the Chinese People's Liberation Army continues to act as an occupying force in Tibet.

Action

Please write to those listed below with the following demands: