German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier renewed his call Tuesday for China to begin talks on the Tibet question, according to dpa. A German Foreign Office spokesman said Steinmeier had again called on the leadership in Beijing to launch talks with representatives of Tibetan religion and culture during a telephone conversation with his Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi. The foreign office spokesman said Steinmeier had stressed during the phone conversation that Berlin backed the "one China policy," which essentially accepts that there is one China and that mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan are all part of that China. At the same time, he said Germany understood the wish of the Tibetan people for "far-reaching cultural autonomy." Steinmeier has spoken several times with Yang since the recent eruption of protests and violence in Tibet and both ministers had agreed to continue their dialogue on the Tibetan question. At the end of last week in Washington, Steinmeier had joined US Foreign Secretary Condoleezza Rice in calling on China to start talks with the Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama.
