Briefing: Time for the US and EU to lift arms embargoes against China?

Charles Grant, director of London-based think-tank the Centre for European Reform, told Jane's: "I think the French genuinely hope to get contracts out of it [Lifting the EU arms embargo on China]. They've had an arms export driven foreign policy for years." UK policy on the EU ban "has gone back and forth", he added. The US remains "the key" to any future change in EU policy, according to Grant: "There's no chance of it being lifted in the near future because the Americans don't want it to be. If US-China relations become relatively relaxed and relatively friendly, then the US will not mind Europe selling weapon systems to China. But that is not the case at the moment; they're not particularly relaxed. There's been a lot of tension between the US and China over the past couple of years. ... I think for the Chinese it's an element of pride," said Grant. "[But] I don't think they really think we're going to lift it because they must be sufficiently intelligent to understand the political dynamics."