France has been one of the countries lobbying for Europe to lift the arms sales ban on China.....
In a nutshell, the fact that France seems to be willing to sell weapons to both Taiwan and China is problematic
Yeah, there's been lobbying from France during Chirac and Sarkozy's terms in office. But there isn't going to be any change on European policy any time in the foreseeable future. Germany opposes a lifting of the embargo but has sold engines for submarines to China. Unless there have been no such sales since Angela Merkel became Chancellor, whether France wants the embargo lifted or not doesn't matter too much.
Also you have to ask whether Paris would think it worthwhile to sell to Taipei and then offer deals to Beijing that would compromise the Taiwanese sales. Sometimes you can make more money through support and maintenance than when a contract is first signed. Plus the French remember what happened the last time they sold stuff to China. Would they want to sell anything that sensitive knowing full well those secrets might be uncovered, incorporated into Chinese weapons and then sold on?
As for what France might sell, China wouldn't want tanks or submarines so there'd be no fear from Taiwan on that front. Not sure they would want SAMs either. The only issue is aircraft technology, and again I doubt the French would sell their best stuff to China knowing what might happen to it (I say might as I don't know how effective their anti-tamper systems are).
ff
