HOME	Where the World's Views of America Come into Focus

Mar. 21, 2005

BY Yu Jie, Ding Zilin and Liu Xiaobo

Original Article (French)

Certain politicians will tell you that lifting the arms embargo imposed on China would be a sign of friendship toward the Chinese nation, and a confidence-building measure with a country Europe is in dispute with. We want to say to you that there is nothing to this argument. Europe and its leaders, if they decide to raise the ban on weapons, will not obtain the gratitude of the Chinese people. Quite the contrary.

In our country [China], a series of catastrophes continues to cost the lives of hundreds of coal miners. The authorities admit that it is short 50 billion Renminbi [about $6 billion] to ensure safety in the mines. For lack of money, China buys energy with its blood. The Ministry for Education recognizes that its budget is seriously insufficient. Hundreds of thousands of children are obliged to leave school because it's too expensive, and for lack of public appropriations. In a democratic Republic, compulsory education is more than just a vain slogan.

The Chinese need basic rights, democracy and freedom. They do not need the capacity to make advanced weapons. Only those who seek to maintain the dictatorship of the Communist Party need such.

New weapons would only be used to reinforce their domination; first to threaten Taiwan, an island and people that already know democracy and freedom; and then, to maintain a climate of fear among the 1.3 billion people of China.

Europe, if it does decide to sell weapons to China, will have no guarantee on their use. The same behavior that led, 16 years ago, to attacks on unarmed students and citizens, could easily be repeated. It is the same behavior that led Chinese authorities to permit the use of dum-dum bullets on students and citizens, bullets prohibited by the Geneva Conventions and designed to cause irreparable physical injuries. It was not the first time. It will likely not be the last.

The embargo applied to China since 1989 is neither symbolic, nor excessive, contrary to what some might tell you. If one listens to Madame Zhang Qiyue, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson, the embargo is "a relic of the Cold War," and a matter of "political discrimination," which no longer corresponds to good relations between Europe and China. Madame Zhang does not dare mention the real cause of the embargo: the massacre of the Chinese people in Tiananmen Square, in June 1989.

Fifteen years have passed, and the behavior has not changed. One month ago, the Chinese Communist Party ordered the hasty burial of Zhao Ziyang. The former prime minister and Communist Party secretary-general was deposed because he had opposed the massacre of students. He died after fifteen years under house arrest, without ever being charged with a crime, and without ever being rehabilitated. Beijing's strategy was to humiliate him until he died.

Fifteen years have passed, and the behavior has not changed. Thousands of parents who lost sons or daughters still cannot openly honor their memory. The Communist Party continues to regard those that died or disappeared in 1989 as contemptible and untouchable. The Communist Party refuses to examine its crimes. If Europe raises the [arms] embargo, it would only encourage dictatorship and betray justice, truth and freedom.

We feel great sorrow writing this, but for many Chinese citizens and free intellectuals, Europe and France, mothers of human rights, are about to give up their principles and humanism for short-term commercial profit. For us Chinese, today the true defenders of democracy are on the other side of the Atlantic, in the United States.

Ding Zilin, the leader of the group Tiananmen Mothers, wrote in a letter to President Jacques Chirac: "the lifting of the embargo would seriously damage the image of France in the eyes of Chinese, who will ask themselves, "Is France, so eager for money, still the home of Hugo, Zola and Camus? Profit can be unaware of the crime, but the Chinese will never forget."

French friends, open your eyes! Benefit well from your freedom of information and your freedom of speech. Denounce the contemptible act that is being prepared on your behalf. By thus acting, you will win our respect and a place in the hearts of the Chinese people.

*Yu Jie is an art critic and co-founder of the Chinese chapter of PEN-International. Ding Zilin is the founder of Tiananmen Mothers (a movement dedicated to the memory of the victims of the 1989 repression). Liu Xiaobo was one of the student protest organizers in 1989 at Tiananmen. All three live in Paris.