Banned in Beijing

The campaign spear-headed by France and Germany to lift the European Union's ban on selling arms to China foundered at the E.U. summit last week. Anger at Beijing's human-rights abuses; the new Chinese "antisecession" law authorizing war if Taiwan edges towards independence, which drew hundreds of thousands of protesters onto the streets of Taipei late last week; and intense pressure from Washington—which fears it might one day be on the receiving end of high-tech weapons in the Taiwan Strait—led several E.U. members to sidle away from a deal to lift the embargo by June.

Shen Dingli,...