IV 
109TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. RES. 43 
Urging the European Council to continue to maintain its embargo on the 
sales of arms to the People’s Republic of China. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JANUARY 25, 2005 
Mrs. JO ANN DAVIS of Virginia (for herself, Mr. SMITH of New Jersey, Mr. 
BURTON of Indiana, Mr. KING of New York, Mr. MCCOTTER, Mr. BER-
MAN, and Mr. BLUMENAUER) submitted the following resolution; which 
was referred to the Committee on International Relations 
RESOLUTION 
Urging the European Council to continue to maintain its 
embargo on the sales of arms to the People’s Republic 
of China. 
Whereas on June 4, 1989, the Government of the People’s 
Republic of China ordered an unprovoked, brutal, and in-
discriminate assault on thousands of peaceful and un-
armed demonstrators in and around Tiananmen Square 
by units of the People’s Liberation Army, which resulted 
in at least 1,000 deaths and several thousand injuries; 
Whereas in response to the military assault in Tiananmen 
Square on June 4, 1989, the President of the United 
States condemned the actions of the Government of the 
People’s Republic of China against participants in the 
pro-democracy movement in China and took several con-
•HRES 43 IH 
crete steps to respond to the repression of the movement, 
including suspending all exports of items on the United 
States Munitions List, including arms and defense-re-
lated equipment, to the People’s Republic of China; 
Whereas on June 26, 1989, in Madrid, the European Coun-
cil, which represents the member-states of the European 
Union (EU), strongly condemned ‘‘the brutal repression 
taking place in China’’ and introduced an embargo on 
trade in arms with the People’s Republic of China; 
Whereas the Department of State’s Country Report on 
Human Rights Practices for 2003 stated ‘‘the Chinese 
government’s human rights record remained poor; the 
Government continued to commit numerous and serious 
abuses; there was backsliding on key human rights issues 
during the year, including arrests of individuals dis-
cussing sensitive subjects on the Internet, health activ-
ists, labor protesters, defense lawyers, journalists, house 
church members, and others seeking to take advantage of 
the space created by reforms’’; 
Whereas on September 15, 2004, the People’s Republic of 
China was designated by the Secretary of State as a 
‘‘country of particular concern’’ for the sixth consecutive 
year for engaging in severe violations of religious free-
dom, including continued suppression of religious groups 
perceived to be threatening to government authority or 
national stability; 
Whereas the citizens of the People’s Republic of China still 
do not have the right to peacefully change their govern-
ment and many who openly express dissenting political 
views are harassed, detained, or imprisoned;
•HRES 43 IH 
Whereas the European Parliament has noted that the human 
rights situation in the People’s Republic of China re-
mains unsatisfactory and that there has been little tan-
gible progress made with regard to the human rights dia-
logue between the EU and China; 
Whereas in a resolution adopted in December 2003 the Euro-
pean Parliament expressed its strong belief that the Peo-
ple’s Republic of China must take actions to improve 
human rights and the rule of law and needs to prove it 
has made significant progress on human rights; 
Whereas in its resolution of October 2003 on the annual re-
port from the European Council to the European Par-
liament relating to the issue of the European Union’s 
Common Foreign and Security Policy, the European Par-
liament insisted on a peaceful resolution of the Taiwan 
issue through dialogue across the Taiwan Straits; 
Whereas several Member states of the European Union have 
now proposed to lift the ban on the sale of arms to the 
People’s Republic of China; 
Whereas lifting the current ban on the sale of arms to the 
People’s Republic of China by the European Union could 
result in serious and dangerous long-term consequences 
for regional stability; and 
Whereas the European Parliament, in a resolution adopted 
on December 18, 2003, and again on November 17, 
2004, expressed its ‘‘grave concerns for lifting the arms 
embargo and called on the European Council and the 
Member states to maintain the European Union’s embar-
go on trade in arms with the People’s Republic of China 
and not to weaken the existing national limitations on 
such arms sales’’: Now, therefore, be it
•HRES 43 IH 
Resolved, That the House of Representatives— 
(1) joins with the European Parliament in call-
ing on the European Council and the Member states 
of the European Union not to lift the embargo on 
the sale of arms to the People’s Republic of China 
and not to weaken existing national limitations on 
such arms sales; 
(2) expresses its concerns over the continuing 
unacceptable human rights conditions inside the 
People’s Republic of China; 
(3) encourages the United States Government 
and the European Union to join together in a coop-
erative effort to develop a common strategy to seek 
improved human rights conditions in the People’s 
Republic of China, to promote regional stability, and 
to help improve political relations between the Peo-
ple’s Republic of China and Taiwan; and 
(4) urges the United States Government and 
the European Union to initiate discussions on how 
the European code-of-conduct can be strengthened 
in order to ensure that sufficient safeguards are in 
place to make it difficult to sell or transfer arms or 
technology to the People’s Republic of China and to 
consider entering into negotiations to develop a new 
transatlantic agreement on the future sale or trans-
•HRES 43 IH 
fer of arms or military technology to ‘‘countries of 
concern’’. 
Æ