Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-07-06-Speech-3-300"
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"en.20050706.27.3-300"2
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".
Mr President, Commissioner, Mr Alexander, the proclamation by the People’s Republic of China of an ‘anti-secession law’ is a key moment for security in the Far East. By enacting a bill that blatantly violates international law, the People’s Republic of China has made it clear to the rest of the world that the Peking regime is not becoming more moderate as had been hoped, even though the country has allowed market forces to operate in parts of its economy and the West has become more open to contacts with China.
China knows that the Taiwanese will never voluntarily agree to unification, and so it is making preparations for an armed attack on this democratic and prosperous country. It is entirely up to us to determine the outcome of a process that began with spending on armaments, followed by the above-mentioned law, which is nothing short of scandalous, and which in turn has had a direct effect in that 600 ballistic missiles have been targeted at Taiwan.
We are already familiar with the reactions of some EU Member States. While this provocation was going on, the President of the Member State that does the most trade with China, or in other words France, announced that there was no longer any point to the embargo on arms exports to China, and that this embargo was a manifestation of hostility. The German Chancellor has echoed his comments. This is the worst of all possible responses, and if we followed this advice, we could be providing arms to a country that makes no secret of its aggressive intentions towards its neighbours.
Europe needs to respond differently to this ‘anti-secession law’. It needs to keep the embargo in place, and to step up its policy of active support for Taiwan’s position in the international arena, by acting in close cooperation with the United States. Our aim up until now has been to maintain the status quo, but the latter has been undermined unilaterally by the People’s Republic of China.
If I may, I should like to make one final comment which occurred to me while listening to the debate, and which should not be taken too seriously. If there were an EU-wide ban on praise for totalitarian systems, I do not believe that the Members of this House from post-Communist countries would manage a single day out of prison, and there would be 50 fewer Members of this Parliament."@en1
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