German and Chinese business executives, in a meeting with Chancellor Angela Merkel and Prime Minister Wen Jiabao Saturday, openly criticized the market conditions of the respective other country, reported DPA.
In the meeting in Xi'an, the capital of the western province of Shaanxi, the German side criticized limited market access for foreign companies, while the Chinese executives, among others, complained about Germany's strict visa rules for Chinese citizens.
Wen and Merkel asked the business leaders to appreciate their countries' positions, but stressed that relations had improved. Merkel spoke of a new stage in relations and newly found openness. "In our talks, we don't beat around the bush," she said.
German managers found fault with the lack of patent protection and hurdles to access the Chinese market. Peter Loscher, head of Siemens AG, said Chinese companies had to get fair treatment in Germany and Europe, but foreign companies in China "expect to find equal conditions in the fields of public tenders." Existing limitations for trade and investment, for example for the car industry and financial service providers, had to be removed quickly.
Chinese business executives griped about German visa rules and demanded an ecologically controversial deepening of the channel of the river Elbe near Hamburg to allow the passage of larger container ships.
Wei Jiafa, head of COSCO Group, China's largest shipping company, said the river was not deep enough for Chinese ships and the Hamburg port lacked capacity.
Merkel, who dampened any Chinese hopes for the the Elbe river project, suggested easing access to raw materials in China, and Wen promised streamlining regional authorization procedures for companies.
The chief executive of German chemical giant BASF SE criticized China for limiting foreign companies access to its markets. Jurgen Hambrecht spoke of "forced disclosure of know-how" in exchange for investment decisions affecting foreign companies in China.
"That does not exactly correspond to our views of a partnership," Hambrecht said at the meeting in Xi'an in north-western China, and urged open markets.
Wen reiterated that he welcomed German investment in China and asked the German manager to calm down, promising a close examination of BASF's case.
Hambrecht said his gripes were about 1-billion-dollar BASF project in Chongping city, where the company plans to produce precursors for plastics.
Wen also stressed past good cooperation with BASF, saying the government created good conditions for entering the Chinese market with a "fair and stable" atmosphere.
Merkel, on the second day of her visit to China, celebrated her 56th birthday Saturday in the north-western city of Xi'an, home of the famous Terracotta Army.
For her fourth visit to China, Merkel had asked to see the 7,000 warriors and about 600 horses of China's first emperor Qin Shi Huang, who ruled from 221 to 210 BC. The army was discovered in 1974 by farmers drilling a well.
Xi'an, the first capital of the imperial China has developed into a high-tech development zone and an important transportation, finance and trade hub in western China.