The human rights issue and German-Chinese relations

The article is dedicated to the analysis of influence of the human rights issue on the development of German-Chinese political relations at the present stage. The author analyses main issues of the Germany- China human rights dialogue, its legal basis, the positions and arguments of the sides. In the author's opinion, one of the main obstacles to the development of cooperation between Germany and China in this area is a different perception of the nature of human rights. The author concludes that both Germany and China in effect are willing to put aside the issue of "human rights violations" and criticism of non-compliance with fundamental civil and political rights of Chinese citizens for the sake of economic and trade cooperation between the two countries.