EU maintains arms embargo

The European Union notified Beijing that it would not lift its ban on arms sales to China that was passed in the wake of the 1989 Tiananmen incident. France had been the main proponent of lifting the ban, but other European countries refused to support repealing the ban citing their lack of evidence of an improvement in China's human rights situation. Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing described the ban as a remnant of the Cold War.