HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH ON EU/CHINA ARMS EMBARGO

C O N F I D E N T I A L BRUSSELS 003310

SIPDIS

DRL/PHD FOR SUSAN O'SULLIVAN

E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/22/2014
TAGS: PHUM PREL PARM MARR CH EUN USEU BRUSSELS
SUBJECT: HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH ON EU/CHINA ARMS EMBARGO

REF: A. USEU BRUSSELS 3159


B. USEU BRUSSELS 2896

Classified By: USEU Poloff Van Reidhead for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d)


1. (C) DRL Senior Advisor Susan O'Sullivan and poloff met
July 23 with Human Rights Watch (HRW) Brussels Director Lotte
Leicht to discuss the EU drive to lift its arms embargo on
China. Leicht said that HRW is working with Amnesty
International (AI),Human Rights in China (HRIC),and
likeminded members of the European Parliament (EP) to develop
a strategy for activism over the coming critical months. HRW
believes that European publics and parliaments need to become
much more active in order to prevent the EU from lifting its
embargo this fall. Leicht said she was considering putting
the issue on the agenda of the EP's Human Rights Contact
Group, which also involves representatives from the Council
Secretariat and Commission, during its fall term (HRW and

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other NGOs will collectively chair the Contact Group from
September to December). HRW also planned to get relatives of
Tiananmen victims to speak out in the EP and other European
parliaments. Leicht encouraged the US to "engage the full
spectrum" of European MPs/MEPs -- appealing to HR concerns on
the left and Transatlantic relations on the right -- to build
bipartisan support for maintaining the embargo. (NOTE: USEU
is working with Liberal-Democratic EP leader Graham Watson to
secure another EP resolution in the September-October
timeframe.)


2. (C) Arguing forcefully that lifting the embargo would
deliver China a huge and unearned propaganda victory, Leicht
said that HRW was taking the position that instead of lifting
the embargo, the EU should issue a political declaration
laying out the specific HR steps China would need to take in
order to lift the embargo in the future. EU leaders should
not be permitted to manipulate China's HR record in order to
curry political or commercial favor from China, she said.
She thought the only way to prevent that was to cultivate
sufficient public pressure to force leaders to define tough
conditions, including resolving all outstanding Tiananmen
issues, for lifting the embargo. Leicht suggested that
increased cooperation among likeminded NGOs, MPs/MEPs, and
third countries would add value to our parallel efforts
(NOTE: We are working with Leicht to host a small roundtable
of likeminded groups at USEU to discuss this idea).

Sammis