Neue Züricher Zeitung publishes op-ed by GPPi

Katrin Kinzelbach has written an opinion piece in the Neue Zürcher Zeitung. In the article, which appeared in the October 17 edition of the newspaper, Kinzelbach takes up Chinese premier Wen Jiabao’s most recent statement on the European Union arms embargo against China. Kinzelbach argues that the ban could be lifted if China was to make a concrete human rights concession. In her analysis, the embargo has primarily symbolic value. Those European Union member states that have traditionally been opposed to lifting it on the basis of human rights concerns are called upon to name concrete conditions under which they would give up their current veto. Kinzelbach suggests that such an approach could alter cost-benefit calculations in Beijing, notably on the release of 2010 Nobel Peace Prize recipient Liu Xiaobo and the ratification of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.