Little Red Blog

How can anyone be so dim? French Defense Minister Michèle Alliot-Marie is urging the end of the EU embargo of arms sales to China. The reasoning… well I’ll let Ms. Alliot-Marie’s words do the talking.

"The lifting of the embargo could be a better protection for us than maintaining it," she said.

"China is rapidly developing its industry, and today our experts say that in five years China could make exactly the same arms that we have today. And they will do it if they cannot import. So maybe if we can sell them the arms, they will not make them. And in five years' time, they will not have the technology to make them."

And - "The embargo was made about 15 years ago, and the evolution of China and of its international relations have been very significant since then," she said. "We cannot have relationships with China in all these fields - economic, medical, research and so on - and conserve the embargo as it is today." [source: FT]

This strikes me as similar to the faulty logic used throughout the American left. We don’t want kids to ... so we provide them with ... in case they do. Or we don’t approve of illegal drug usage, but giving paraphernalia (implements) prevents misuse and disease.

China is developing the technology, manufacturing capabilities and stores of arms on their own. The idea that by selling arms to China, the Chinese will no longer pursue such arms or the means to produce them is ludicrous. It stems from the EU’s greed and nothing more. China wants the arms and the EU wants China’s money (or anyone’s for that matter). The U.K. may be the exception, while they support the removal of the embargo, their contention is that it is ineffective and greater oversight can be achieved through a lifting of the embargo and the creation of an organ for monitoring trade with China.

The Financial Times notes that the U.S. has been quietly opposed to the removal of the embargo, in an attempt to prevent further tension between the U.S. and our European allies. Here, again, the official U.S. policy believes that the EU is somehow friend of the U.S. (See my previous look at China and the EU.)

UPDATE: Porter Goss changed the tone with regard to China, compared to previous years, in his statements regarding Red China's efforts to counter the U.S. before the Senate Intelligence Committee today. It's about time.