'China still highly repressive'

More than 500 Chinese human rights activists have sent an open letter to the European Union urging it not to lift its arms embargo on China. Here is the text of the letter.

Sixteen years ago, the European Union set specific human rights conditions when it imposed a set of sanctions on China for its military crackdown on pro-democracy protest in June 1989.

The activists say the Chinese state remains very repressive

Despite continued human rights abuses, and specifically, the Chinese government's refusal to be accountable for the crackdown, the EU is considering lifting the arms embargo, the last and most significant of these sanctions.

While the EU has temporarily postponed its decision, it should not resume the discussion until China meets specific conditions of human rights.

We, the former leaders in the 1989 pro-democracy movement and families of victims of the Tiananmen massacre, would like to respectfully remind the EU of the enduring relevance of the events of 1989 to the Chinese people.

We request that any future discussion about ending the embargo be conditioned on improving human rights in three particular areas:

• A general amnesty of all prisoners of conscience, including those imprisoned in connection to peaceful protest in 1989, and public trails by independent court for those charged with "criminal" acts.

• A reversal of the official verdict on the 1989 movement as "counter-revolution riot", allowing an independent "truth commission" to investigate and provide a comprehensive account of the killings, torture, and arbitrary detention, and bringing to justice those responsible for the violations of human rights involved.

• Adoption and implementation of the International Covenant on Civil Political Rights, taking concrete actions to enforce other international human rights conventions and treaties that China has joined.

Contrary to the claims made by some European leaders recently, the human rights situation in China has not undergone any fundamental change since 1989.

The regime's position - that peaceful demonstration to demand democracy and freedom was "counterrevolutionary", hence justifying brutal suppression and even use of deadly force - remains unchanged.

Public commemoration and demands for re-evaluating this official verdict remain punishable offences.

'Clear message'

In the last few months alone, police detained, beat and put under house-arrest several dozen people, including members of the Tiananmen Mothers and former student leaders, who openly demanded the government to reverse its verdict on June 4th and release the more than 250 political prisoners jailed for their roles in the 1989 movement.

Sixteen years after Tiananmen, the Chinese state remains highly repressive despite its calculated token gestures to avoid international censure.

Rapid economic growth has not been translated into improvement of social economic rights and has resulted in new patterns of rights abuses.

The signatories say lifting the embargo will send the wrong message

The state continues to incarcerate people for expressing their ideas or organizing to defend their own rights, detain people in Re-education Through Labour camps without judicial review, persecute practitioners of officially unsanctioned religions, use torture to extract evidence, and engage in widespread and arbitrary use of the death penalty.

The Chinese government has made use of sophisticated technology to infringe upon freedom of expression and information.

In 1989, the imposition of the arms embargo and other trade sanctions sent a clear message to the Chinese government to censure its bloody crackdown on peaceful protesters.

They demonstrated Europe and other democratic nations' strong commitment and firm support for the arduous struggle of the Chinese people for human rights and democracy.

While the impact of easing non-military trade sanctions is ambiguous due to possible distress of such sanctions on the life of ordinary Chinese, lifting arms embargo is unjustifiable on similar ground due to its impact on regional security.

Given the EU's commitment to promoting human rights, democracy, and rule of law in China, we hope the EU will not let business interest stand in the way of advancing its "core values".

We believe it is imperative that the EU make concerted efforts to pressure the Chinese government to meet the three minimal conditions specified above before reconsidering whether to lift the embargo.

Doing away this sanction without corresponding improvements in human rights would send the wrong signal to the Chinese people, including especially those of us who lost loved ones, who are persecuted, and for all Chinese who continue to struggle for the ideal that inspired the 1989 movement.