Analysis: German-Chinese diplomatic crisis

BERLIN, Sept. 25 (UPI) -- German Chancellor Angela Merkel's meeting with the Dalai Lama has sparked a serious diplomatic crisis between Germany and China.

On Tuesday, Jiang Yu, China's Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, said Merkel’s meeting with the exiled spiritual leader from Tibet in Berlin "grossly interfered" with China’s internal affairs.

She said the meeting -- the first of a German chancellor with the Dalai Lama -- "severely hurt the feelings of the Chinese people" and “seriously undermined" relations between the two countries.

The Sept. 23 meeting in the chancellor's office sparked not only some severe rhetoric, but also diplomatic repercussions from Beijing.

On Friday, Beijing called off an extensive round of multi-day talks between Chinese and German officials and German Justice Minister Brigitte Zypries that would have started Sunday in Munich.

"You can imagine that we regret it very much that this meeting cannot take place," a Justice Ministry spokesman said Monday in Berlin. "We are very eager to find an alternate date soon as possible."

China then canceled a traditional breakfast scheduled for this week in New York between its Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi and his German counterpart, Frank-Walter Steinmeier. A German Foreign Ministry official said it would not take place for "scheduling reasons," but it’s an open secret that Merkel's meeting with the Dalai Lama is the real reason for the cancellation.

The Chinese are especially angry since they had protested the meeting earlier this month by summoning Germany’s ambassador to China in Beijing.

The Dalai Lama since his failed uprising against the Chinese rule of Tibet in 1959 is persona non grata in the country; he has lived in India ever since and from there leads an exile government. China accuses him of being a separatist who wants to break up China’s territorial integrity; the spiritual leader says he wants greater autonomy for the region as the Chinese government continues to repress Tibetan Buddhists' religious freedom, especially their worship for the Dalai Lama.

The German government has repeatedly made clear that it will point to human rights shortcomings, no matter any governmental ties. On Monday, Germany was nevertheless eager to pursue diplomatic damage control.

Christoph Heusgen, Merkel’s foreign policy adviser, called China’s ambassador to Germany to brief him about Merkel’s meeting with the Dalai Lama and tell him that nothing has changed in terms of Germany’s China policy, said government spokesman Thomas Steg, adding that China's territorial integrity was not in question.

"Such talks must be possible without hurting German-Chinese relations," he said, adding that China’s territorial integrity was in no way being questioned by Berlin. "We have a great interest to continue, develop, expand and intensify the positive relations with China."

Merkel's meeting with the Dalai Lama comes just a few weeks after she met with Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao and President Hu Jintao during an official trip to China, where she sought to intensify German-Chinese diplomatic and economic ties.

But just those may be in danger, said a leading German China expert.

"The Chinese have a long memory, and they have in the past followed up their irritation with economic repercussions," Eberhard Sandschneider, head of the China Program at the German Council on Foreign Relations, a Berlin-based think tank, told United Press International in a telephone interview Tuesday.

Sandschneider added the Germans could have handled the meeting differently.

"It’s right and good that Merkel meets with the Dalai Lama," he said. “But did it have to be in the chancellor’s office? That’s a political up-valuation of the Dalai Lama which no German chancellor has done before, and it was obvious that China sees that as an affront.”

While the current diplomatic crisis may not last long and should not be overrated, it currently prevents Germany from influencing other crisis regions, Sandschneider said.

"It would be good if the German foreign minister could call his Chinese counterpart and tell him how important a stabilizing Chinese influence in Burma would be," he said. "But that option is out of the question right now."