Published by: World Tibet Network News, Thursday, June 27, 1996

BEIJING, June 27 (Reuter) - China called on Thursday on the German business community to help rebuild relations damaged by a row over a German parliamentary resolution last week which condemned China's human rights record in Tibet.

"We hope our friends in the German business community will work jointly with us so that relations between our two countries in various fields can continue to advance," Foreign Ministry spokesman Cui Tiankai told a news briefing.

Beijing this week withdrew an invitation to Foreign Minister Klaus Kinkel to visit in July, signalling its anger over the parliamentary resolution.

Germany retaliated by freezing several high-level visits and official contacts.

"This problem is entirely the responsibility of the German side and China should not be held accountable," Cui said. "It is not something we want to see."

However, he gave a veiled warning that failure to resolve the row could harm German business interests in China.

"Sound political ties between states will surely promote the development of economic and trade links," he said.

Asked to comment on reports that visas for German business people had been delayed because of the row, Cui said he had not heard of such delays.

Germany is China's biggest trading partner in Europe. In the first five months, bilateral trade was worth $4.875 billion, up 5.5 percent over the same 1995 period, Chinese customs figures show.

China's trade with Germany is more than double its trade with its second largest trading partner in Europe, Italy.

The row has raised fears among German companies that they could lose contracts or business in China.

Beijing hinted this week it might be eager to see ties recover swiftly, saying Bonn should take concrete steps to prevent further diplomatic damage. Bonn has said it wanted to cool the heated diplomatic row before it boiled over.

Beijing, which responds with visceral rage to what it sees as infringements of its sovereignty, was particularly infuriated by the reference in the resolution to the Tibetan "government-in-exile," diplomats said.