It looks like the EU China Arms Embargo is likely to stay in place for another year. Good plan.
This year and last, the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre has prompted discussion of the EU's ban on arms sales to China. Thankfully, this year there have been fewer doubts about the continuity of the embargo, as this report by the Reuters news agency suggests. The embargo has remained in place since the 1989 massacre of pro-democracy student protesters, for which the Chinese government has never apologised. For this Tibet-watcher, democratic reform in China would support the movement towards a free Tibet, and a lapse of the arms embargo would be a seriously retrograde step.
This is not to say that China is struggling to equip her army (the largest in the world) or that the EU arms embargo is preventing the armament of China. As a report released today by Amnesty International demonstrates, "China is fast emerging as one of the world’s biggest, most secretive and irresponsible arms exporters", supplying over $1Bn worth of military hardware to some of the world's (other) dodgiest states, sustaining human rights abuses in countries such as Sudan and Burma.
With all the major world powers involved in increasing militarisation and prolonging the suffering of ordinary people caught up in the armed oppression they have created, I can't help thinking global leaders could do with a bit of an education in non-violence. Maybe we could invite them to Students for a Free Tibet Action Camp next week?
The world would be such a fantastic place if world leaders came to Action Camp. All polititions need NVDA!