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Paris Plays To China
The EU has rejected French calls for an end to the ban of arms sales to China.
France was joined by Germany in calling for an immediate end to the 15 year old embargo, put in place following 1989's Tiananmen Square massacre.
Despite the decision, seasoned France-watchers will agree that Paris is unlikely to allow the issue to drop - and may already be looking at ways to get around the ban.
Britain opposed lifting the ban, but agreed to French calls for a "detailed review" of the embargo. The sudden change of heart comes as London is increasingly alarmed by French government attempts to position itself as Beijing's most favoured ally.
Paris has long bemoaned the ban on arms sales to China: French opposition to the ban is only intensified by America's determination to keep it in place. This is the second time this year that France has tried unsuccessfully to have the ban lifted.
While its dream of selling arms to China's dictatorship has been repeatedly thwarted by the EU and the US, France has looked to other means of ingratiating itself with Beijing.
In October last year, France's defence minister called for sharing of sensitive military information with China - building a close relationship with Beijing is a crucial element of the France vision of a "multipolar world" which can limit US action.
In January, France invited China's president to Paris. To celebrate the official visit, the Eiffel Tower was bathed in red light - the colour of China's ruling Communist party.
EURSOC rather hoped that French protestors might have pointed out that illuminating your most prominent landmark to celebrate Chinese communism was a particularly badly-timed display of fealty, not least because 2004 marked the 15-year anniversary of the slaughter at Tiananmen Square.
Not a bit of it. Apart from a few isolated protests against China's occupation of Tibet, the visit passed without incident. It will be interesting to compare the reaction from France's large protesting community to President George Bush's forthcoming visit.
The symbolism and timing of the Eiffel Tower display was shocking but worse was to come. As a closely fought and dangerously controversial election approached in Taiwan in June, France joined China in naval training exercises in the Gulf of Taiwan.
Beijing had warned that a vote for independence from China would risk war. It regularly runs military exercises in the Gulf to threaten its small democratic neighbour.
But this was the first time that a western democracy joined China in intimidating Taiwan's voters.
Oddly, only the blog world was outraged by France's irresponsible behaviour. Diplomats and old media outlets seemed to shrug their shoulders at the actions of Europe's rogue state, as if to say "That's France."
More cynical commentators might add that France's attempt to position itself as China's "Mini-Me" is a demonstration of realpolitik in action. China is set to become a superpower in a matter of decades: It is in any country's interests to be on the good side of such a giant, even if it means irritating traditional allies. Even the Americans realise this, as is evident from the current administration's lack of unambiguous support for Taiwan.
Furthermore, someone has to sell the Chinese weapons: If it is not France, it will be someone else.
For its part, Paris argues that China has been unfairly singled out: Other nations, it argues, have much worse human rights records (and they should know - Paris has propped up or sold arms to most of the worst regimes.)
This is disingenuous, not least because France regularly singles Israel out for criticism despite much worse abuses of human rights elsewhere.
France is unlikely to let something like an EU ban prevent it from doing business with Beijing. French businesses managed to bypass the UN's sanctions on Iraq to get aid to Saddam Hussein's regime. Arms and oil deals with African dictators during the Mitterand regime are only now coming to light, and in fragmentary form. More recently, France was criticised by breaking more EU laws and regulations than any other nation.
Only a fool would believe that Paris is not in some way making sure that its ally - and potentially its biggest client - was benefitting from French military expertise. After all, the ban is only on selling weapons - as any France-watcher knows, Paris is very creative when it comes to finding ways around sanctions.
