- The EU and China have strengthened their increasingly
close relationship with the signing of two important agreements in Beijing
on October 30.
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- One secures China's backing for Galileo, the EU's satellite
navigation project, and the other relaxes visa restrictions for Chinese
tourists visiting Europe.
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- Chinese Prime Minister, Wen Jiabao, told a joint news
conference after the summit: "We hope the European Union will become
our biggest partner in economic and trade relations".
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- China is currently the EU's third largest trading partner,
with trade worth 86 billion euro in 2003, according to the Financial Times.
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- Galileo China has pledged to invest 200 million euro
in the EU's Galileo project, despite intense objections from Washington.
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- The Galileo project, which will cost an estimated 3.25
billion euro, represents a departure by the EU from its reliance on America's
Global Positioning System (GPS).
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- The Pentagon is opposed to the EU developing its own
independent satellite system, insisting that GPS provides an adequate satellite
umbrella.
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- The Commission insists that, unlike GPS, Galileo will
not be under military control.
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- For its part, China hopes that its involvement in the
Galileo system will help it to upgrade its communications systems, and
provide greater accuracy for a broad range of civilian activities.
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- India is set also to participate in the Galileo project,
the EU's Transport Commissioner Loyola de Palacio revealed on October 30.
The details will be finalised at an EU-India summit next month, but India
is expected to invest 300 million euro in the scheme.
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- "Third countries are more enthusiastic than certain
European countries about Galileo", said the Commissioner.
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- Visa restrictions In the hope of boosting the number
of wealthy Chinese tourists visiting Europe, the EU has decided to relax
its visa restrictions for the country.
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- Under the new system, which will cover only the Schengen
area and therefore exclude countries such as Britain, approved Chinese
travel agencies will be given preferential treatment for visas, provided
that holidaymakers all return to China.
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- But critics of the initiative say that it could be open
to abuse by Chinese people smugglers, says the Telegraph.
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- Human rights abuses During the summit, both sides "agreed
to continue their ongoing dialogue on human rights on the basis of equality
and mutual respect".
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- But this is not enough to satisfy human rights campaigners,
who have been demanding that the EU increase pressure on China to improve
the protection of civil and political rights.
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- Concerns raised by Amnesty International include the
continuing use of the death penalty in China's "strike hard"
campaign on law and order, the use of detention without charge or trial,
and the repression of Buddhist monks in Tibet and of the Falun Gong spiritual
movement.
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- Human Rights Watch has been publicising China's treatment
of those suffering from HIV/Aids, including a cover-up of the spread of
the infection by state-run blood collection centres. It also cites repression
of those campaigning for autonomy in Xinjiang and for trade union rights.
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- A spokesman for the European Commission, Diego Ojeda,
defended the outcome of the summit, saying that the existing dialogue with
China remained "the best instrument" to improve human rights
in the country.
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