China and Military End Use Control
Is China (PRC) subject to the Military End-Use Control?
No, the military end-use control does not affect China (PRC). That is because, the EU embargo on China is not a full scope one, and thus Article 4.2 of Council Regulation 1334/2000 does not kick in to effect, as this only relates to full scope arms embargoes. Article 4.2 states that it affects any nation “subject to an arms embargo decided by a common position or joint action adopted by the Council”, but the embargo on China does not fall within this category, as information on the FCO’s website states that the instrument for the embargo on China is the “Declaration by the Madrid European Council 27/6/89”, whilst others (for instance the ones on Burma and Sudan) clearly refer to the instruments being “a Common Position”.
Therefore, legally, whilst Article 4.1 (WMD) would count for China, Article 4.2 (the Military End-Use Control) does not kick in for that country. So unless there was evidence that the intended exports were going to be used “in connection with the development, production, handling, operation, maintenance, storage, detection, identification or dissemination of chemical, biological or nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices, or the development, production, maintenance or storage of missiles capable of delivering such weapons,” 1334/2000’s Military End-Use controls are irrelevant.