China Cont'd

Fire of Liberty

Jeremy Slater over @ Tech Central Station has a good piece on the problems emerging between Taiwan and China over the passage of the anti-secession law and the removal of the arms embargo on China by the EU. I've been arguing for a good while that the elimination of the arms embargo would worsen the situation in the Taiwan Strait. With China rattling its saber at Taiwan with the passage of the ant-secession law one can only guess what will happen if the EU opens the floodgates of weapon sales to China. The biggest problem with the EU lifting the arms embargo is that they fail to realize they will enhance the military capability of a potential aggressor to the US and Taiwan. Just take a look at Taiwan's concern in Mr. Slater's piece:

In an attempt to win allies in Europe, Chen took part in a videoconference in early March with lawmakers in the European Parliament. The Taiwanese president said the anti-secession vote would pose a serious threat to the existence of Taiwan as a separate entity and as a functioning liberal democracy. He added that democracy was a hard-won fruit of the Taiwanese people and that a vote for the proposed law would seriously destabilize relations across the strait and throughout the Pacific region.

Despite being given a friendly and supportive hearing by lawmakers in the Parliament the reality is that Taiwan has very few official friends around the world. Recently Japan and US held talks with Taiwan, but China has warned Washington and Tokyo against any idea of creating a security alliance with the Taiwanese.

The fear of an increasing military threat can only be increased by the EU's lack of a tough negotiating strategy with Beijing over the likely lifting of the arms embargo. To Taipei and many other observers the EU seems to have offered China a deal without making any demands in return, such as over human rights or democracy. Taiwan feels that many European administrations are more interested in financial gain when dealing with China rather than standing up for the rights that have strongly established democratic rule throughout the continent.

The EU decided to introduce the arms embargo because of a violation of human rights, said Chen. "Over the past decade, we have not seen much improvement with regards to such rights and democracy," he added.

Though I doubt China or the US will end up in a conflict in the Taiwan Strait, we cannot let up our guard and condone the EU arm sells. Its better for the Chinese military to evolve and modernize over an extended time period rather than an instantaneous time period. What, with our hands tied on the War on Terror in Afghanistan and Iraq, the US would prefer to deal with the problem on our own choosing rather than China's. The best deal is to avert such a disaster before it gets to the point of no return.