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Q: I want to follow up the question I raised on Tuesday. The U.S sanctioned eight Chinese companies for their suspected military technology export to Iran. You gave a long answer but were not sure if this sanction was exactly an earlier similar case. Could you provide more information now? The second question is about the EU's arms sale to China. According to an "Amnesty International" report, although EU maintains its arms embargo against China, its arms sale has doubled this year. Does China regard this embargo as outdated, or should it be lifted?

A: About U.S. sanctioning Chinese companies, I have already expressed our position last week, and I can reaffirm China's stand. I would like to give you a full account of our position since you asked again.

China resolutely opposes the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and their delivery means. The Chinese Government has already established a complete system of laws and regulations on non-proliferation and strictly enforced them. No organizations or individuals are allowed to engage in proliferation activities. Any activities against the laws and regulations would be punished by Chinese government according to the law. The U.S. sanctioned Chinese company for many times based on its domestic law, which we deem extremely irresponsible and not helpful to our bilateral cooperation on non-proliferation. We express our strong dissatisfaction and firm opposition to it and require the U.S. to cancel the sanction immediately.

On the second question, I have also read the report, but doubt whether it's telling the truth. As for the embargo, we have expressed Chinese Government's position on many occasions. The arms embargo should be cancelled since it's the outcome of the Cold War, and incompatible with the overall trend of the development of China-EU relations. Removing the embargo will certainly not lead to China's torrential arms import. We have reiterated that China pursues a national defense policy that has defensive nature and we mainly rely on ourselves for arm equipment. The essence of the arms embargo removal is to eliminate political discrimination, which would be beneficial to the all-round development of China-EU relations.

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