German opposition seeks vote on China

BERLIN -- German opposition parties hope to split Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's coalition in a bid to maintain the arms embargo against China, a highly sensitive issue on both sides of the Atlantic, according to senior party members.

The Christian Democrats and the Free Democrats have requested a vote in the German Parliament that they said would test the commitment of the government, a coalition of Schroeder's Social Democrats and the Greens, to human rights in China.

If the vote succeeds, it could swing the mood inside the European Union, where several countries, particularly Britain, remain skeptical about lifting the embargo. The Bush administration opposes arms deliveries to China, and the issue was one of the few open disagreements on President Bush's recent trip to Europe.

''This is not the right time to lift the embargo," Friedbert Pflueger, foreign affairs spokesman for the Christian Democrats, said in an interview.

''It sends the wrong signal to China. It is also damaging for Europe's relations with the United States. We are going to bring this issue to the parliament and vote on the matter."

The European Union imposed the arms embargo after the Tiananmen Square massacres in 1989. Pushed by France and Germany, which have substantial economic interests in China and whose leaders are eager to increase sluggish growth rates, the EU is preparing to lift the embargo, saying the human rights situation in China has improved.

In place of the embargo, the EU wants all 25 member states to agree on an improved code of conduct that will stipulate conditions under which weapons may be exported to China from EU countries. But politicians who want to keep the embargo argue that the code of conduct is not legally binding and will not prevent countries from selling more arms to China.

In recent weeks, as Schroeder's government has suffered several blows on other fronts, Germany's opposition parties and even some members of the Greens have challenged the official position on lifting the embargo. They have expressed doubts about human rights in China as well as the impact on the military balance in the region.

This month, Jiang Enshu, a parliament spokesman, said China intended to increase officially declared spending on its military by 12.6 percent this year to $29.9 billion.

Germany's foreign minister, Joschka Fischer, a leading Green, has backed lifting the embargo. But he is under pressure from a scandal about issuing visas to Eastern Europeans and may not be able to prevent some members of his party from returning to the more traditional Green stance of opposing arms sales overseas.

When asked about Fischer's view, a German government official who insisted on anonymity said the code of conduct would be effective. It ''will be a much tougher one, and all the 25 member states will harmonize the way they report each year to the EU over what they intend to export to China," the official said.

The opposition can win a parliamentary vote only if some Greens, or even Social Democrats, defect from the government.

Pflueger, of the Christian Democrats, apparently sensing an opportunity to deal another blow to Schroeder, said the opposition intends to put pressure on parliament when it meets next month after the Easter holidays.

''We will call on the government to keep the embargo," Pflueger said in an interview. ''We have already seen how China's new antisecession law against any independent moves by Taiwan militarily threatens Taiwan."

Jack Straw, Britain's foreign secretary, said yesterday that the law would make it harder for the EU to lift the embargo.

The Christian Democrats and their sister party in Bavaria, the Christian Social Union, have support from the opposition Free Democrats and from influential political groups in the EU, including the conservative European People's Party and the European Liberal Democratic Party. Last month, the EU voted against lifting the arms embargo.