BERLIN (Reuters) -Chancellor Olaf Scholz told the German parliament on Thursday that he had warned&nbsp;China&nbsp;during talks earlier this week against using&nbsp;force&nbsp;to achieve territorial changes, particularly against&nbsp;Taiwan.
Scholz hosted a large&nbsp;Chinese&nbsp;delegation led by Premier Li Qiang in the first face-to-face summit since the pandemic this week, at a time of rising geopolitical tensions between the West and&nbsp;China.
"We firmly reject all unilateral attempts to change the status quo in the East and South&nbsp;China&nbsp;Seas by&nbsp;force&nbsp;or coercion. This is especially true for&nbsp;Taiwan," Scholz said, according to prepared remarks.
"We are also concerned about the human rights situation and the state of the rule of law in&nbsp;China," he added.
China,&nbsp;which&nbsp;has&nbsp;never&nbsp;renounced&nbsp;the&nbsp;use&nbsp;of&nbsp;force&nbsp;to&nbsp;bring&nbsp;Taiwan&nbsp;under&nbsp;its&nbsp;control,&nbsp;has&nbsp;stepped&nbsp;up&nbsp;military&nbsp;activities&nbsp;near&nbsp;the&nbsp;democratically&nbsp;governed&nbsp;island&nbsp;to&nbsp;force&nbsp;it to&nbsp;accept&nbsp;Chinese&nbsp;sovereignty.
Taiwan&nbsp;strongly disputes Beijing's&nbsp;sovereignty&nbsp;claims and vows to defend&nbsp;itself if attacked.
Speaking to lawmakers, Scholz also urged Turkey to pave the way for Sweden to become a member of the NATO alliance and said Sweden should have a seat at the table of the next NATO summit.
(Reporting by Andreas Rinke; writing by Matthias Williams; editing by Friederike Heine)

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Germany's Scholz: I warned China on using force against Taiwan