Germany’s Angela Merkel renews call for peaceful resolution to Hong Kong protests
- German chancellor says in talks with Beijing she ‘advocated that conflicts be resolved without violence and that anything else would be a catastrophe’
- She also criticised China’s social credit system during speech at a university
Speaking to the media during her visit to the central city of Wuhan, Merkel said that in her talks with Beijing she had “advocated that conflicts be resolved without violence and that anything else would be a catastrophe from my point of view”.
Merkel also said Beijing had listened to her views. “This is important,” she added, though it was unclear whether she had raised the subject of Hong Kong directly during her meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday.
Merkel had also called for a peaceful resolution to the situation and for Hong Kong’s rights to be “guaranteed” at a joint press conference with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang in Beijing on Friday.
Meanwhile, during a speech at the Huazhong University of Science and Technology in Wuhan on Saturday, the German chancellor criticised China’s social credit system. The controversial system has been rolled out in some parts of China as a means of systematically evaluating the economic and social credit worthiness of individuals and businesses.
In Europe this was seen as a bad idea because people had sovereignty over their private data and the topic would remain a key ethical discussion in coming years, she told the students.
Merkel also called climate protection a global problem and urged China to take up more responsibility for challenges facing the international community.
“Climate protection is everyone’s responsibility,” she added.
Given the size and economic power of China, the international community needs an important contribution from it, Merkel said.
She also criticised protectionism and called for multilateral action in areas such as trade.
“After all, protectionism harms us all,” the German chancellor said.
Merkel, who was in China with a large business delegation, was also scheduled to visit a car supply company which is part German-owned later on Saturday.
She held talks in Beijing on Friday with Premier Li, and also met President Xi for talks as well as dinner. Topics discussed included the trade dispute between China and the United States and the unrest in Hong Kong.
In the press conference on Friday, Li, the most senior Chinese official to have publicly commented on the Hong Kong protests, said Beijing supported the Hong Kong government to end the “chaos” within the framework of the law. But he added that it was Chinese business and that Chinese people had the wisdom to handle the protests on the basis of law. He did not respond directly to a question about possible Chinese military intervention in the city.
It was Merkel’s 12th trip to China and she was due to fly back to Berlin late on Saturday.
Reuters and DPA
