The Eu Arms Embargo On Research

Arms embargo is a kind of sanction among countries. The new China had longbeen inflicted by arms embargoes imposed by the western countries. In 1989, theEuropean Community officially announced an arms embargo against China. Thisthesis elaborates the background and reasons of the problem. After analyzing the EC'sdecision-making method and the implementation of the embargo, the author thinksthat EU's arms embargo has a special nature. It is not legally binding, and EU keepssome reservations about it.The post-Cold War years witnessed the rapid development of China-Europerelations, and the bilateral cooperation expanded into political and strategic areas.Therefore, EU's embargo on China seems to be an anachronism. China alwaysopposes the embargo. At the same time, the sound of lifting the embargo in EU isincreasingly vocal, making the lifting inevitable. However, several factors affect thelifting, such as the different views of Member States, EU's decision-makingmechanism and the EU Constitution crisis and EU's strict arms exports controlsystems. Moreover, the United States is a major external factor which deeply affectsEU's decision-making. The arms embargo imbroglio also reflects the triangularrelations among China, EU and the United States.The author looks into the future of the problem, thinking that lifting of theembargo is just a problem of timing, considering the development trend of China-EUrelations. Lifting of the embargo is probably made through compromise andconcessions of the EU, China and the United States.