On the afternoon of April 3, Chinese Assistant Foreign Minister Ma Canrong met upon appointment Herbert Jess, Charge d' affaires ad interim of the German Embassy in China, to express deep condolences on the murders of the family of Pfrang Jurgen Hermann in the early hours of Sunday in Nanjing. Ma also expressed sincere solicitude to the relatives of the deceased, saying that Pfrang Jurgen Hermann was highly appreciated by relevant Chinese departments because of his positive efforts and great contributions to the Sino-German economic and technological cooperation over the years. Ma expressed the hope that the incident would not affect the normal operation of the Sino-German economic and technological cooperation. The Chinese side would like to cooperate with the German side to effectively handle the problems arising from the incident.


The victims, including Pfrang Jurgen Hermann, deputy general manager of Yaxing-Benz, a Sino-German automobile joint venture in the City of Yangzhou in Jiangsu Province, and his wife, son and daughter, were killed in their house in the early hours of 2 April, 2000 in what is thought to have been a burglary. Four suspects in the case, who are from Shuyang County in east China's Jiangsu Province, have been arrested and confessed to the murders. China's judicial departments will severely punish the murderers according to the law. Relevant departments of Jiangsu Provincial and Nanjing Municipal Governments have informed the German Consulate General in Shanghai about the progress of the investigation.