Germany Says China Cancels Human Rights Meeting – Erik Kirschbaum

From Reuters:

China has cancelled an annual German-China human rights dialogue meeting scheduled for December, a spokeswoman for the Foreign Ministry said on Saturday, declining to comment on the reasons.

She would also not comment on a report in Der Spiegel news magazine that said China scrapped the meeting in retaliation for Chancellor Angela Merkel‘s September meeting with Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama.

“The German-Chinese human rights dialogue has been cancelled this year,” the spokeswoman said. She said the two-day meetings have taken place once a year for the last decade. Germany’s human rights commissioner has traditionally led the German delegation.[Full Text]