The meeting entitled a dialogue of human rights is held with a primary theme concerning the practice of death penalty. Markus Loening, a human rights personnel representing the federal government of Germany, noted that both of the countries had reached a consensus that the abolishment of death penalty is a irreversible trend and China is reducing the executions as evidenced in law amendments excluding juveniles and senior citizens above 70 years old from the penalty, the report quoted Deutsche Welle, a Germany news media.

Despite lack of specific figures concerning the death penalty executions, the numbers are on the decline as perceived from other sources, said Loening.

Meanwhile, another focus of the meeting underscores the rights of minority groups including Tibet and Xinjiang . Loening noted that Germany respects the territorial integrity on China soil and its right to punish terrorists.

However, he said, “those with political concerns in non-violence forms should not be persecuted,” and “China's tough measures in Tibet and Xinjiang do not meet with the proportionality principle.”

The dialogue began from 1999 after German's former Chacellor Gerhard Schroeder and Zhu Rongji, former premier of China, promised an annual meeting concerning the development of human rights. The meeting was temporarily put to a halt after Chancellor Angela Merkel received Dalai Lama, a spiritual leader of Tibet, three years ago.

The relationship between Germany and China is improving after Merkel's trip to China two weeks ago. Both countries also issued a joint statement promising exchange of visits between government heads on an annual basis.