The gloves are off

Following the refusal of the EU to lift the arms embargo on China, the gloves are really coming off.

In an extraordinarily strident piece which abandons any pretence of diplomacy, the China Daily, has launched into a vitriolic attack against the US, reminiscent of the worst days of the Cold War.

Headed, "Why is the EU refusing to lift the arms embargo against China?", the answer China Daily gives is: "Because Uncle Sam objects. The USA, in its anti-communism myopia that has reined since the McCarthy era, still sees itself as protecting the world from the evils of anything that does not look, smell or taste like its brand of democracy."

Continuing in this vein, it adds:

The US has not learned the appropriate lessons available during the 20th century and hence perpetuates its foreign policy mistakes into the 21st century. The US has learned nothing from Korea, Viet Nahm (sic), Taiwan, Hong Kong or Macau. Now the US insists that Iraq and Afganistan become US style democracies. The US is anti-Cuba but fails to see the hypocricy in its Taiwan stance.

Not pulling any punches at all, it adds vitriol to vitriol, storming:

Why is the third world rebelling and attacking US targets? Because the third world is tired of US intervention in internal affairs, just like the US threatening reprisals against the EU if it lifts the arms embargo against China. Once again the US meddles in China's internal affairs, judging China's human rights by the US standards it imposes on the rest of the world. And the US sells arms to Taiwan. Japan declares Beijing a military threat, also probably under pressure from its US benefactor.

Then for the really dirty blow, so far below the belt that future generations are threatened: "Bin Laden is just a natural human reaction to US superiority complex and moral arbiter of the world", says the paper. "If the US truly wants to end terrorism, it must get out of everyone's business and clean up its own environment."

And all this because the US does not want the EU to export high technology weapons to the peace-loving Peoples' Republic of China. This is really the country with which the EU wants to do business?