Bush Warns Europe on Ending China Embargo

[corksean]

BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) - President Bush and European leaders settled simmering differences about Iraq but plunged into a troublesome new dispute Tuesday over the lifting of an arms embargo against China. Bush warned Congress might retaliate if Europe revokes the 15-year ban.

Bush said lifting the embargo, imposed after the bloody 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown on pro-democracy activists, ``would change the balance of relations between China and Taiwan and that's of concern.'' But French President Jacques Chirac and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said the ban should go. ``It will happen,'' Schroeder said.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-4819362,00.html

[Fenris]

1. Ooooh! Congress! Scawy!

Run kids! It's the all-powerful CONGRESS!

[wildmanj]

3. all-powerful

CHICKEN HAWK HEAVEN

[knight_of_the_star]

2. Stupid idiot

If he wants to threaten Europe, they have much more they can hit us with than vice versa

[saltpoint]

4. Old Europe seems to be giving Bush a taste of --

-- world politics.

He's coming out of this looking like the philistine yahoo he is.

[Warren Stupidity]

5. no shit it will happen

guess what bushie? Yurp wants a strong china to offset a certain out of control rogue state. You f'ing numbskull.

[tritsofme]

6. Bush is right on this one.

I sure as heck don't want China to gain more of an advantage against Taiwan with more advanced Western weapons technology.

[Warren Stupidity]

7. Why?

I actually think that China is never going to invade Taiwan. They use Taiwan as a way of keeping us distracted and pinning our pacific fleet down in perpetual defense of what has become a meaningless issue. Oh and it serves a useful purpose for domestic jingoism. So the Chinese put up one ship to every 10 we put up, they keep theirs at home we keep ours 3,000 miles from home. We lose. Eventually we will go home. Eventually Taiwan will voluntarily rejoin China. The Chinese are very good at the eventually strategy.

China does need oil and the Chinese are certainly aware of our efforts to militarily lock down the mideast and central asian oil fields.

[tritsofme]

8. Taiwan is a blossoming democratic state

I doubt severely that they would ever join willingly the repressive modern fascist regime that China is becoming.


The last thing we need to do is leave China in a better position to take Taiwan if it ever desired to do so.

[Warren Stupidity]

12. Fine

But like I said, I really doubt China intends to 'take' Taiwan. They will just wait and eventually Taiwan will take itself to China. But we disagree on that, and it is just opinion by both of us anyhow.

China has as much right to purchase military equipment as any other repressive regime. For example: saudi arabia, egypt, and pakistan.

We aren't pushing to keep the boycott in place to protect Taiwan, we are doing it because the neoclowns have always viewed China as the real enemy. The game in the middle east is just the prelims to the real game, the big show, and that one features China as a major player.

How about we just ban international weapons sales entirely to anybody by anybody? I'd go for that.

[solinvictus]

9. Then why the hell do they have MFN trade status with us???

Dumbass, where do you think the cash China's using for it's buildup comes from? Your corporate buddies at Wally World and other retailers.

[centerspectrum]

10. reply

You know I don't think its a good idea to be arming China right now with advance weaponry from Europe. China is a human rights abuser and is a bigger polluter than the US despite what other people think.
I don't think the governmet of Taiwan is happy with the decision of the EU to sell these weapons to China.

[tabasco]

15. Check the list of countries the US sells weapons to.

While you're at it, check the scorecard to see which country has killed more civilians lately - the US or China.

Then come back and blab some more about human rights.

Not sure what pollution has to do with this but I think you should check your facts there too.

[struggle4progress]

11. "We're friends again! So stop sulking and do what you're told."

[daleo]

13. If the ban was over Tiananmen, then Taiwan shouldn't matter.

This is the way Bush does his foreign policy: find some totally unrelated international agreement over a matter long in the past, and use it for a legal fig leaf to attack a country in the present day. This was the way they got their legal veneer (illegal in my opinion, but it convinced some of their followers) to invade Iraq.

[cliss]

14. Taiwan is a side issue.

Bush doesn't want China to get sophisticated weapons. Bush knows his Empire is sliding into the sunset. Our days of glory are over. He's afraid that China will overpower us militarily, which will happen anyway.

At this point, it'll be all he can do to control his demise.

Judging from the insults that were hurled at him in Europe, I'd say they all know it.