BONN, Nov 14 (Reuter) - German Chancellor Helmut Kohl's liberal coalition partners in Bonn criticised him on Tuesday for his landmark inspection of a division of Chinese troops, saying it sent "the wrong signal" on human rights.

Kohl, on a 10-day trip to Asia, visited a showcase division of the People's Liberation Army (PLA), winning Beijing's welcome for the move toward normalising military ties.

Guido Westerwelle, general secretary of the liberal Free Democrats (FDP), joined critics in Bonn who have accused Kohl of restoring the good name of the Chinese military that crushed pro-democracy protests in Beijing in 1989.

"I am not of the view that one should make such a visit to troops," Westerwelle told German radio.

He said Kohl was right to raise human rights concerns with Chinese leaders during a trip designed to boost political and economic ties. But he added: "Whether he is sending the wrong signal by visiting troops is a different matter."

An exiled Tibetan group also slammed Kohl's visit to the 196th Infantry Division. "November 14, 1995 stands for the moral nadir of German foreign policy, especially its China policy," said Tsewang Norbu, chairman of the Association of Tibetans in Germany.

He charged that more than 1.2 million people had been killed in Tibet since Chinese comunist troops entered the territory in 1950 to overthrow a Buddhist theocracy.

He called the PLA "mainstay and executor of a murderous regime." Bonn government sources say Germany does not wish to normalise military relations with China -- still subject to an European Union arms embargo -- and that the 196th division took no part in the bloody suppression of student demonstrators in Beijing's Tiananmen Square in June 1989.

They say Bonn simply wants to match the United States in its level of military cooperation with Beijing by exploring ways to work together on military medicine or training methods.

Westerwelle, whose FDP has stressed liberal issues as it fights for political survival, said he thought Kohl's trip would be judged a success despite the controversy over the troop inspection.

He said the step would not harm the centre-right coalition. "Basically the trip makes sense not just for economic reasons but above all because one can do much more concrete things for people who are being oppressed there by holding talks than by remaining silent," he said. "In foreign policy one cannot just talk with people one finds sympathetic and with whom one would go out for a beer in the evening. One...must conduct talks because one cannot drive even unjust regimes into complete isolation."