» 02/03/2012 10:40 CHINA-GERMANY Wen Jiabao: China "could" help rescue Europe by Wang Zhicheng Means promised by Wen Jiabao to Angela Merkel to support the European Stability Fund. Europe is the largest market for China's exports. The meeting with Hu Jintao. Also under discussion are Iran and rare soils. Differing views on human rights. A visit to the bishop of Guangzhou, Msgr. Gan, who in July attended an illicit episcopal ordination.
Peking (AsiaNews) - "China is considering greater involvement in resolving the debt crisis of Europe", said Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao at a press conference yesterday, after a dialogue with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in her visit to the country.
Risolving the European debt crisis is "urgent and important," Wen said, but he did not specify what kind of help and how much China could give in supporting the financial stability fund and the European mechanism for stability.
All the European leaders - with Angela Merkel in the lead - see China's foreign exchange reserves - about 3.2 trillion U.S. dollars - as a possible source to alleviate the problems of the European economies, stifled by sovereign debt. This need of funds has made European leaders often very ready to praise and applaud China and to cover their eyes to human rights violations.
Merkel noted that Chinese leaders have asked Europe to do more to "put their situation in order", before Beijing intervenes.
China's support for the European economies would be advantageous for the Asian giant, which last year saw a reduction in the volume of exports to the EU and the USA. In fact, Europe is the largest market for Chinese exports and - as Wen stressed - a stable euro would have a "great impact" on China as well.
Merkel also asked Beijing to use all its influence to persuade Tehran to give up their nuclear programs and return to talks with the five world powers (plus Germany).
On this issue, Berlin's position seems softer than America's. The United States and Europe have introduced new sanctions against Iran, hitting their oil exports and banking transactions, but Beijing has not agreed to implement them.
China is among the largest importers of Iranian oil. Wen Jiabao expressed his agreement for a dialogue with Iran and said that Beijing does not support the development of nuclear weapons in the Middle East.
Another theme of the Wen-Merkel talks was the greater liberalization of rare soils - used in the electronics industry - of which China has a near monopoly. The international community accuses Beijing of having reduced production to increase prices.
Today Merkel met with President Hu Jintao and left for a visit to Guangdong, the richest and most industrialized region of China. In an interview with the news weekly "Nanfang", from Guangdong, Merkel said that Germany's friendship with China is such that it can face even the most thorny issues such as human rights, on which Beijing and Berlin disagree.
According to German diplomatic sources, today Merkel will also visit the Catholic bishop of Guangzhou, Msgr. Gan Junqiu. Msgr. Gan is one of the bishops who was forcibly obliged to participate in the illicit episcopal ordination in Shantou, last July (see 07/14/2011Eight bishops in communion with the Pope forced into the illicit ordination of Shantou).
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