EU Ready to Put China Arms Issue on Hold

EU leaders seemed ready to postpone lifting the arms embargo on China last night, responding to Beijing's adoption of a secession law designed to prevent Taiwan's moving to independence.

The 25 heads of state and government gathered in Brussels for the EU spring summit were under competing pressure from Washington and Beijing. Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state, has called on the EU not to upset the balance of power in the Asia-Pacific region, while China insists that the EU must keep to its timetable for lifting the embargo.

Although EU-China relations are not officially on the agenda, a senior diplomat said it was bound to be discussed, after the recent visit to Washington of a delegation from the council of ministers secretariat.

Another told Reuters: "It is clear that China has not fulfilled certain conditions for lifting the embargo, notably by not raising tensions in the region."

A third said the secession law had blown plans for lifting the embargo out of the water.

The EU has been working on a code of conduct to govern resumed arms sales to China. Senior diplomats and politicians have argued that this would preclude its sending the kind of high-tech weapons the US fears Beijing could use to attack Taiwan.

But China, with strong backing from France, ever-anxious to provide a counterweight to the US, insists that the EU must keep to its timetable.

Condemning the embargo as unfair, the Chinese foreign ministry spokesman said: "It is unreasonable to link China pushing the EU to lift the arms embargo and China passing the anti-secession law."

He said the new legislation was not aimed at war.

Britain has already made it clear that the new law makes lifting the embargo more difficult. "This will take as long as it will take," a junior minister, Bill Rammell, said in Washington on Monday.