Chinese officials have suggested their country has no money and appetite for "useless" and "expensive" European weapons, amid concerns over the expected lifting of the EU arms embargo later this year.
"China is a developing country, we do not have the money to buy a lot of weapons from your country [the EU] that are very expensive and useless to us", the Chinese foreign minister, Li Zhaoxing, told journalists on Saturday (5 March), according to the AFP press agency.
He suggested that the continuing EU arms embargo against China amounted to "political discrimination", pointing out that Beijing is "committed to peaceful development".
The European arms embargo was introduced after the violent backlash against the student pro-democracy movement by the Chinese communist government in 1989.
EU leaders are expected to agree on lifting the arms ban at their June summit, despite protests from both human rights activists and Washington.
Opponents of the controversial step point to severe violations of citizen rights in China and express concerns that China could use weapons purchases against Taiwan, with the Chinese parliament set to pass a law aimed at curbing the island's bid for formal independence.
Last week, Beijing announced a 12.6 per cent increase in its defence budget for 2005, its largest increase for three years, while the official budget does not match real defence spending as it excludes most procurement costs, according to the Financial Times.
By: N. Peter Kramer
