The president of Germany's parliament, Wolfgang Thierse, leaves Friday for a trip to China which includes talks with President Hu Jintao and a visit to Tibet. Thierse, who is accompanied by members from all of Germany's major parties, will visit both Shanghai and Beijing, said a statement by the German parliament. In addition to talks with senior officials, he is due to meet members of independent foundations and NGOs, said the statement. A member of German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's Social Democrats (SPD), Thierse was a dissident academic in former communist East Germany who was sacked by the country's culture ministry in 1976 for refusing to join the communist party and declining to denounce suspect artists. Chancellor Schroeder, along with French President Jacques Chirac, is leading backer of lifting the European Union arms embargo on China imposed after the bloody crackdown by Beijing on pro-democracy protesters in 1989.
