Skip to content

Chinese Official Berates German Lawmaker after Hong Kong Visit

Christian Lindner, a member of the German parliament and leader of the Free Democratic Party (FDP),was  recently the head of a delegation to visit Asia. In China, on the last stop of the delegation’s trip, Lindner received rude treatment from Beijing. A Chinese official berated him for 30 minutes. It is believed to relate to the German lawmaker’s brief stop in Hong Kong and his meeting with the city’s pro-democracy lawmakers.

The long scheduled Asia trip included Malaysia, Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, and China. When Lindner finally arrived in China, he received a cold reception. A number of prearranged meetings with senior Communist Party officials were cancelled at the last minute. A Chinese official shouted at Lindner for 30 minutes on the Hong Kong issue. The German Der Spiegel magazine broke the story, and Süddeutsche Zeitung (a South German Newspaper) and Focus magazine did follow-up reports.

According to Handelsblatt, a leading German-language business newspaper, Chinese officials strongly condemned Germany about the wave of protests in Hong Kong. They claimed that the German public opinion’s support of the protests and Germany’s refugee protection given to Hong Kong dissidents provoked people’s violence in breaking into the city’s Legislative Council.

Berlin’s daily newspaper Berliner Zeitung reported that Lindner replied and refused to accept any charges. In an interview with the Süddeutsche Zeitung, Lindner said that, since China abandoned polite diplomacy, he also was straightforward. Chinese officials were not happy with what he said. After he finished speaking, the welcome meeting was over.

Source: Radio France International, July 25, 2019.
http://rfi.my/4JLM.T