- TAIPEI -- France's growing
closeness to the Chinese leadership was signalled yesterday when the two
countries held joint naval exercises and the European Union said it wanted
to scrap its post-Tiananmen Square arms embargo.
-
- As two French and two Chinese warships practised "non-conventional
security", the EU's foreign policy supremo, Javier Solana, said it
was working to end the embargo in an "orderly fashion".
-
- The odd wording is a sign of continuing disagreement
in the EU about the embargo, imposed after the Tiananmen Square massacre
of 1989.
-
- Although the drive to scrap it has been led by France,
with the support of Germany, some other members are uneasy because of China's
human rights record.
-
- The Sino-French exercises come at the end of a five-day
visit to the port of Qingdao by the French navy and were described by Beijing
as the biggest with a foreign country. Diplomats denied that they were
connected to this weekend's presidential elections in Taiwan, which have
raised tensions between the two "rival Chinas".
-
- China says it would invade Taiwan if it ever tried to
declare formal independence from Beijing, and attacks President Chen Shui-bian,
who is standing for re-election in a close-fought race, for having "splittist
tendencies".
-
- France has also attacked Mr Chen. When President Hu Jintao
of China visited Paris in January, his French counterpart, Jacques Chirac,
criticised Mr Chen's plans to hold a simultaneous referendum on whether
to buy anti-missile weapons to counter any threat from China.
-
- Shortly afterwards, the Chinese state news agency, Xinhua,
issued a paean of praise for the improvement in relations with France.
-
- During the visit, Mr Hu addressed the National Assembly
and the Eiffel Tower was decorated in Chinese style.
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- © Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2004.
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- http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/03/17/
wsino17.xml&sSheet=/news/2004/03/17/ixnewstop.html
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