Grune and fdp expect clear words from merkel on hong kong

FDP and grune have called on chancellor angela merkel to take a clear stance on the unrest in hong kong during her visit to china.

The grunen-politician jurgen trittin declared on thursday: "as a major european trading partner, germany must … Also throwing his weight around on political issues."The chancellor must make it "unmistakably clear that, with regard to hong kong, compliance with the principle of ‘one country, two systems’" for germany and all of europe is non-negotiable". FDP politician alexander graf lambsdorff told dpa that merkel must "press hard" for compliance with the treaty’s civic rights for hong kong.

The chancellor is expected to hold talks with chinese premier li keqiang in beijing this friday and with state president xi jinping in the evening. Overshadowing this 13. Visit is overshadowed by the trade dispute between china and the U.S., the unrest in hong kong and the conflict with the uyghurs.

In the trade dispute with the u.S., some hope recently sprouted after chinese state media reported that new direct talks between the two parties to the dispute are to take place in early october as part of the two countries’ regular strategic economic and trade dialogue in washington. According to the report, "significant progress" is to be prepared at the working level as early as mid september.

A meeting of the chancellor with leaders of the protests in hong kong is not planned, according to government spokesman steffen seibert. Shortly before the start of the trip, they had asked merkel for a meeting. He could not provide any news about the chancellor’s travel plans, seibert said.

For months, protests have been taking place in hong kong, often ending in clashes between a small number of demonstrators and the police. The protest movement fears increasing influence of the chinese government on hong kong and a curtailment of their freedom rights.

For its part, even before the visit, the federal government again appealed to the parties to the hong kong protests to resolve the conflict through dialogue and without violence, on the basis of the laws and freedoms that apply to hong kong and to the relationship between china and the special administrative region.

The federal government’s human rights commissioner, barbel

kofler (SPD), criticized in the editorial network germany: "in terms of civil and political rights, the situation in china has deteriorated significantly in recent years."Freedom of expression is being increasingly curtailed. She is also "very concerned" about the treatment of minorities such as the tibetan minority or the uyghurs and other muslims. In xinjiang, the home of the uyghurs, hundreds of thousands of people are imprisoned in re-education camps.

In some regions, the so-called social credit system is being used

tested, kofler continued. The behavior of all burgers observed in the course of a comprehensive monitoring will be evaluated. Points will be awarded for desired behavior, points will be deducted for undesired behavior, for example for running a red light – but also for actions critical of the government.

Merkel is accompanied on her three-day trip by a large business delegation. She will visit companies in peking and on her second stop wuhan on saturday. In wuhan, she wants to talk to students at the local huazhong university. Merkel was last in may last year in china.

Lambsdorff said that should china take violent measures against the peaceful demonstrators in hong kong, as it did in 1989 in tiananmen square, germany must condemn this together with its european partners. Sanctions must not be ruled out. In a strategy paper, the FDP parliamentary group demands a strategy of "sovereign dialogue at eye level" from europe in its dealings with the economically and militarily emerging people’s republic of china.

Trittin warned that it must also be made clear from the german side that entry bans against german deputies, as recently happened in the context of the planned trip of the bundestag’s "digital agenda" committee, are not acceptable.