October 15, 2004

By The Epoch Times (translated from the Chinese edition)

In order to blandish China and further increase economic profits, French President Jacques Chirac is constantly calling on the European Union to lift its weapons embargo on China, despite the fact that human rights in China has not improved since the Tiananmen massacre 15 years ago.

This event drew criticism from European media. Recently, a “Tiananmen Mother,” Ding Zilin, released an open letter to Chirac. In it she denounces France’s efforts to urge the EU to lift the weapons embargo on China. She says that doing this for the sake of profit is in fact, “helping a tyrant to do evil,” which deviates from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. She also stated, “Such gory trade is a crime against 130 million Chinese people who are still struggling among the tribulations.”

According to The Apple Daily, Ding Zilin told Chirac, “Do you know that the regime you are in favor of lifting the weapons embargo from, was one that used shrapnel on its own people? In an old Chinese saying, what you are doing is ‘helping a tyrant to do evil.’”

Ding also says, “Fifteen years have passed since the Tiananmen massacre, during which time we can not see any change in the totalitarian autocratic system by the CPC; moreover, the human rights situation in China continues to deteriorate. So far, the families of those killed on June 4 are still an underground group. They were not even given the right to mourn their murdered family members. So far, Zhao Ziyang, former General Secretary of the CPC who opposed the shooting of the students and civilians, is still deprived of basic personal freedoms. This regime constantly cracks down on the disadvantaged groups of peasants and workers who appeal for their basic rights; brutally tortures Falun Gong practitioners; squashes the family church of Catholicism and Christians, and condemns dissident and internet writers to heavy sentences.”

Ding states that, among the activities in the Sino-France Culture Year, there was no representation of human rights, with much of Chirac’s speech deviating from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and betraying the spirit of French democracy and human rights.

It was reported that the European Union placed an embargo on trade in arms with China in 1989 following Beijing’s brutal massacre of pro-democracy advocates. Paris-based Reporters Without Borders states that lifting the arms trade would mean a corresponding rectification of the June 4 incident; however, the Chinese Chairman, Hu Jingtao, says there is no necessity to review the June 4 incident.

Britain’s Financial Times, in its editorial on October 8, reminds Chirac and his European partners to pay attention to the Chinese human rights record. The editorial points out that the Chinese regime would use weapons from the EU to crackdown on dissidents, promote its sovereignty in the South China Sea, and assault Taiwan and U.S. troops who reinforce Taiwan.

Additionally, an article in the French newspaper Le Figaro, also criticizes Chirac’s endorsement of lifting the EU’s arms embargo on China as turning a blind eye on China’s appalling human rights record.

Copyright 2004 – The Epoch Times

http://english.epochtimes.com/news/4-10-15/23766.html