German SPD Leader Attacks Merkel`s China Moves

Beck said his centre-left SPD was permanently interested in seeing improvements in human rights in China.

The leader of Germany's Social Democrats, Kurt Beck, said on Thursday that he was "deeply saddened" by Chancellor Angela Merkel's policies on China and the damage she has done to Sino-German relations.

Adding his voice to Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier's criticism of Merkel, Beck said Merkel's moves -- such as meeting the Dalai Lama in her chancellery -- had hurt ties built up under former Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.

Beck's attack again highlighted tensions in the right-left grand coalition, which on Thursday marked the passing of their first two years in power. Beck is the leading SPD candidate to challenge Merkel in the next election due in 2009.

Merkel had dismissed Steinmeier's accusations that she was putting public relations ahead of diplomatic ties by focusing on human rights in her dealings with China as well as Russia. She said no one could tell her whom she was allowed to meet.

"She can receive anyone she wants," Beck told the Lausitzer Rundschau newspaper. "But it's not right that the Foreign Minister has to clear up the mess left behind."

Beck said his centre-left SPD was permanently interested in seeing improvements in human rights in China.

"That's why I'm deeply saddened that the human rights dialogue so painstakingly brought forward by the Schroeder government has now been stopped," Beck added.

"Germany needs to have close cooperation with China at all levels, including business. That serves the people."

Merkel was the first German chancellor to meet Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, a move which angered China and prompted Beijing to cancel several high-level meetings.

"As Chancellor, I decide whom I meet and where I meet them," Merkel said on Wednesday.