Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-09-06-Speech-3-325"

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"en.20060906.23.3-325"2
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"Mr President, I too am pleased that we are holding this debate at last. I believe that it would have been a mistake to refer this report back to committee and it would have sent out the wrong message, particularly given the importance attached to the sovereignty of this House. China is clearly making great progress and modernisation is currently moving ahead, but we must bear in mind that the accelerated and rapid pace of that modernisation poses risks from the social and environmental points of view. In this regard, the European Union must contribute to the development of the positive aspects of this modernisation and not encourage the negative aspects or the risks attached to it. We must therefore make our position very clear at a time when we are discussing European Union-China relations. Friends must speak clearly to each other; it is with friends that we must maintain good relations and also speak very honestly. In this case, I believe that we must do so while making the values that we consider to be fundamental to a good, fruitful relationship very clear. Some of them have already been mentioned, but I would like to raise them again, in order to make it crystal clear that we are in favour of abolishing the death penalty and that we believe that to be a universal value, that we are in favour of democratisation and freedom of expression, including on the Internet, and of freedom to exercise one’s culture and religion, that we condemn systematic torture and the existence of re-education camps for prisoners and that we consider respect for the rights of people such as those of Tibet to be fundamental. We therefore call upon the Council to implement the applicable policy and to agree to sending a special envoy. With regard to the arms embargo, we have said many times that we cannot and will not accept any lifting of the arms embargo unless there is firstly a solution, a justification or a clear acceptance of responsibilities with regard to the events of Tiananmen Square; until that issue is cleared up, we cannot consider lifting the embargo. Finally, with regard to the One-China policy, I agree that that must be the objective and that it provides a good framework for negotiating relations between China and Taiwan, but it must be between democratic entities. If that is not the case, of course, the One-China policy may have negative consequences."@en1

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