AP,
BEIJING (AP)–China asked the European Union on Monday to end a ban on arms sales to Beijing imposed after the bloody 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown and predicted prosperous times ahead as their relationship flourishes.
The Chinese government's comments came in a major policy paper released barely two weeks before a high-level EU delegation travels to Beijing.
The EU in Luxembourg released its own policy paper later Monday, saying that persistent human rights violations in China overshadowed that country's remarkable economic growth and efforts to combat poverty. It made no mention of the arms sales ban.
China said that “common ground between China and the EU far outweighs their disagreements.''
“China-EU relations now are better than any time in history,'' China said. “Neither side poses a threat to the other.''
The text was released by the government's Xinhua News Agency, which predicted the EU would eventually become China's largest investment partner. The growing relationship, it said, “has served the interest of both sides.''
Beijing and the EU established relations in 1975, and the European Union has grown increasingly powerful and relevant since then–particularly in recent years. The EU is China's third-largest partner and vice versa, Beijing said, and trade volume between China and the EU hit $87 billion last year.
A closer relationship with the European Union would help China find markets for billions of dollars in products and offer a counterbalance to its economically close but sometimes politically tense relationship with the United States.
The EU should end a 14-year ban on arms sales to the communist government in Beijing “at an early date so as to remove barriers to greater bilateral cooperation on defense industry and technologies,'' the Chinese government said in the very last sentence of the 4,000-word report. It also advocated increased “high-level'' military and strategic exchanges.
The ban on arms sales was imposed after the military crackdown on pro-democracy protests in Tiananmen Square in June 1989. Hundreds, perhaps thousands died in the government action.
