Human Rights

In Italy, Milan's Corriere della Sera noted with admiration, "The lady is unshakeable. Even though her foreign policy advisers told her not to, and despite political pressure from Beijing, Madame Merkel opened the chancellery doors to the Dalai Lama for the very first time. At the end of the day, the German chancellor, in contrast to many other world leaders, acted in agreement with her stated beliefs: that human rights -- in this case, of Tibetans -- should not be sacrificed on the altar of China's economic promise.

The Financial Times Deutschland wondered if Merkel's decision wasn't a result of her personal history of growing up under East Germany's repressive Communist regime. "Angela Merkel has earned our respect," the paper wrote. "When it comes to political face-offs, Merkel often seems fuzzy, offering up riddles when questioned on a given stance. But when it comes to protecting human rights, she takes a clear stance. Perhaps it is the legacy of her biography as an ex-DDR citizen. In any case, it is a bold move."

When it comes to foreign policy, Chancellor Angela Merkel has shown herself as principled and dogged, wrote the Mitteldeutsche Zeitung from Halle. "Neither [predecessors] Helmut Kohl nor Gerhard Schröder took such a consistent interest in human rights questions as the chancellor from East Germany. The private meeting with the Dalai Lama plumbs new depths of German foreign policy. … The decades-old calls to support human- and civic rights -- outside of Sunday sermons -- are finally being taken seriously by a German head of government.

The Westdeutsche Zeitung from Düsseldorf warned business that their fear of losing Chinese business over friendship with the Dalai Lama is "out of place. … Businesses have to get used to the idea that they lost their best worker when Gerhard Schröder left office. Foreign policy needs to be more than just the perception of economic and security interests. … The steadiness with which Angela Merkel stands up for human rights against Russia and even China has earned her a portion of the respect the voters gave her.

Finally the Luxemburger Wort took time to point out that Tibet cannot really be considered an "enemy" of China, given the Dalai Lama's limited demands on Beijing. "Since 1959, [the Dalai Lama] has been living in exile in India and has never preached violence against the occupying Chinese. He gave up the demand for Tibetan independence long ago, and now only seeks autonomous status within China's borders. So, Berlin has not made an alliance with Beijing's enemies." Nonetheless Merkel's decision to meet with its leader is an important symbolic act, the paper wrote.