Germany's Merkel calls for human rights dialogue with China to resume

German Chancellor Angela Merkel called on Wednesday for dialogue with Beijing on human rights to resume as soon as possible, in her last government consultations with China as leader of Europe's biggest economy. Merkel said the regular consultations had during her nearly 16 years in power improved cooperation on issues from climate change to business and had at times covered areas of disagreement such as human rights and Hong Kong.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel called on Wednesday for dialogue with Beijing on human rights to resume as soon as possible, in her last government consultations with China as leader of Europe's biggest economy.

Merkel said the regular consultations had during her nearly 16 years in power improved cooperation on issues from climate change to business and had at times covered areas of disagreement such as human rights and Hong Kong. "It's an exchange that covers the common ground, but sometimes also different points of view," Merkel said in a statement after a video call with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang which also included other government ministers.

"But I think you can only resolve conflicts if you stay in the conversation," said Merkel, who is not running in a federal election in September. "I would hope that we could also get the human rights dialogue going again as soon as possible." A Chinese foreign ministry statement acknowledged Beijing and Berlin have different views on some issues but did not mention human rights dialogue. It called for mutual respect of core interests and communication on the basis of non-interference.

Li said China and Germany should demonstrate "cooperation and unity" in their push for global economic recovery, according to the foreign ministry statement. During the consultations, Joe Kaeser, head of the Asia-Pacific Committee of German Business, underlined German companies' concerns about requirements for local data storage in China and restrictions on cross-border data transfer.

He also said Chinese state-owned companies' procurement hindered transparency and openness, according to a text of his comments. Merkel said she hoped the government talks would continue after she leaves office.

"These will be my last government consultations. But I hope that they will not be the last government consultations between China and Germany," said Merkel.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)