Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-11-16-Speech-2-029"

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"en.20041116.7.2-029"2
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"Mr President, Mr Nicolaï, Commissioner Patten, while the Council’s representative has been very frank in laying bare the ongoing disputes between two groups within it, I think the important thing for us has to be proper consideration, at the Summit, of the fundamentals of our relationship with China. It is on this that the Presidency should try to agree, while acknowledging that, although there have indeed been improvements over recent years in the way in which human rights are handled in the People’s Republic of China, they have not gone anything like far enough. It is evident from the way in which religious freedom, freedom of assembly and association and the freedom of the press continue to be brutally repressed in the People’s Republic of China that it simply is not enough to cast a veil of economic interest over it. I therefore call on the Council to draw a clear line here and to say that we acknowledge the improvements, but that they are utterly inadequate. China, under its new leadership, must make the first move. I agree with the previous speakers that we cannot lift the arms embargo while prominent representatives of the government in Beijing are threatening Taiwan with the use of armed force, as they did yesterday. It is not acceptable that armed force across the Taiwan Strait should be a means of making policy. Commissioner Patten has always shown us the right way to go. We have always called for political dialogue between the People’s Republic of China and Taiwan – a political dialogue on which both states must embark. I hope that the Chinese political leadership will indeed take the first approach, that of resuming dialogue through association. At a time when the People’s Republic of China is threatening Taiwan with the use of armed force, lifting the arms embargo would send completely the wrong message. I think we are all agreed on that, and, at the Summit, the Council should do some straight talking to that effect."@en1

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