Criticizing European Myopia

Secretary of State Rice has warned Europe that selling sophisticated weapons to China is a bad idea.

BEIJING — Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice suggested Sunday that European governments are irresponsible if they sell sophisticated weaponry to China that might one day be used against U.S. forces in the Pacific.

"It is the United States, not Europe, that is defending the Pacific," Rice said. She spoke in Seoul, the penultimate stop on her weeklong tour of Asia.

South Korea, Japan and the United States are all Pacific powers and all contribute resources to keep the Asia-Pacific region stable, Rice said.

The European Union may soon lift an arms embargo on China (search) that was imposed after the deadly 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in Tiananmen Square. Lifting the embargo would allow sale of technology and weapons that China badly wants to modernize its creaky military. China has recently gone on a military spending spree that Rice said concerns the United States.

"The European Union should do nothing to contribute," to the possibility that Chinese forces might turn European technology on Americans, Rice said after meetings with the South Korean president and foreign minister

Dr. Rice is absolutely correct. China's rights record hasn't improved at all since Tiananmen Square, and their recent rhetoric and posturing has been very worrisome, particularly with relation to their crack down on democracy in Macau and Hong Kong and their charged rhetoric towards the legitimate Chinese government in Taiwan.

Europe doesn't do jack when it comes to the Pacific, so lifting the arms embargoes in order to get a short term flow of cash out of the Chinese is not only ignorant, but completely self-absorbed. This doesn't surprise me from the French, but I'd think that the Brits would have a bit more sense. Anyway, if the European nations have no remaining stake in Asian/Pacific security, they have a responsibility not to alter the balance of power. Then again, expecting help from the French government on anything isn't much different than asking a wolf to watch your sheep for a few minutes.