Published by: World Tibet Network News, Thursday, June 27, 1996
Beijing-June 27-FWN/UPI--China blames Germany today for an ongoing dispute over human rights violations in Tibet but stressed the government hopes to see relations improve on the basis of "mutual non-interference."
"The current trouble hounding Sino-German relations is the sole making of the German side," Foreign Ministry spokesman Cui Tiankai told a news briefing. "The Chinese side should not be held accountable for that and it is also something the Chinese side does not wish to see," he said.
Cui urged Bonn to take concrete steps to resolve the row coinciding with the start of debate today in the German parliament on the current foreign policy with China.
"It is the German side that single-handedly created the current impasse in its relations with China, therefore the German side should do something," he said.
A German parliamentary resolution condemning China's rights record in Tibet escalated the dispute between Beijing and Bonn.
Beijing, enraged at what it saw as foreign interference, withdrew an invitation to German Foreign Minister Klaus Kinkel to visit China in July.
Bonn cancelled planned visits to China by Construction Minister Klaus Toepfer and Environment Minister Angela Merkel. A high-level defense meeting between Chinese and German officials was also postponed indefinitely.
Some Western diplomats have warned China could escalate the dispute to engulf business ties with its biggest European trading partner.
Already, a German businessman has expressed concern that the Chinese Embassy was handling visa applications more slowly.
But Cui said he was not aware of such delays, and urged German business representatives to continue to work with their Chinese counterparts.
"We hope that friends in the German business community will work jointly with us so that relations between the two countries in various fields can continue to advance on the basis of mutual non-interference in each others internal affairs, mutual respect and equality and mutual benefit, " Cui said.
