The Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) has appealed to Chancellor Angela Merkel to use her upcoming visit to China to raise awareness for the alarming human rights situation in the country. "The current situation in Hong Kong is really precarious," emphasized Hanno Schedler, Society for Threatened Peoples Expert on Genocide Prevention and the Responsibility to Protect. "As a pioneer of the concept of a preventive responsibility to protect, Germany has to call on the Chinese government to avoid an escalation of violence." The government in Beijing must engage in a discussion with the people of Hong Kong instead of trying to increase the pressure by deploying more and more troops. This will not help to find a peaceful solution.

In the Xinjiang region, more than 1.5 million Uyghurs, Kazakhs, and Kyrgyz people are interned in reeducation camps, where they are systematically brainwashed. "The international community must address this injustice again and again, until the camps are closed down," Schedler stated. "In her talks with Prime Minister Li Keqiang, Chancellor Merkel should maintain the pressure."

There are also concerns regarding the Tibet region. "There, the Chinese government is trying to reduce the number of Buddhist nuns and monks," Schedler reported. "Over the past three months, more than 3,500 of them were kidnapped from the Yachen Gar Study Center in Sichuan." They were beaten, tortured, and detained under inhumane conditions. "As a representative of the Christian Democrats, Merkel should demand an end to the religious persecution in the country. Buddhists and Muslims, but also Christians, are increasingly under pressure," Schedler criticized.

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