No US pressure over China ban

THE US did not exert “any great pressure” on Ireland to reverse its stance on the issue of the EU arms embargo on China, the Taoiseach has said.

Mr Ahern attempted to facilitate a lifting of the embargo during his tenure as president of the European Council in the first half of 2004. Those efforts are continuing, and the Taoiseach believes a decision to allow China purchase weapons from the EU will be agreed upon by the member states by the end of the year.

However, the US is vehemently opposed to the EU’s imminent lifting of the embargo, as it believes China will simply accelerate arms imports from Europe, which could then be used to further domestic repression or bolster the communist state in its stand-off with Taiwan.

Like the EU, the US-imposed an embargo following the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989, when the Chinese military killed at least several hundred pro-democracy campaigners, most of them young students. The death toll has never been established.

The US has no intention of lifting its embargo, and says the EU doing so would not be warranted “either on human rights or security grounds.”

In recent weeks and months, the US has upped its campaign to persuade key EU member states to change their minds on the issue. However, the Taoiseach, speaking in Hong Kong on Saturday shortly before the conclusion of the Government-led trade mission to China, said the US had applied no significant pressure on him.

“We know their view,” Mr Ahern said. “But there has been no big lobbying from them, directly to me, either during (Ireland’s) presidency (of the EU) or since the presidency.”

Meanwhile, the Taoiseach said, while Britain had not been ready last year to move on the issue, he expects Prime Minister Tony Blair to do so in the near future.

China is eager to see the lifting of the embargo, believing it is a “Cold War relic” and an unnecessary affront in the EU-Sino relationship.

The EU is currently China’s largest trading partner.