Uighur leader Japan visit angers China

China has protested to Japan for allowing exiled Uighur leader Rebiya Kadeer, who Beijing considers as the leader of the unrest in its Xinjiang region.

"Some forces in Japan plan to facilitate Rebiya Kadeer's visit to Japan and, despite China's grave concerns, Japan allowed her to enter. China expresses its strong dissatisfaction," Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu said on Tuesday.

Zhaoxu reiterated China's position against any movement aimed at national separatism, stressing the government is 'firm in upholding our national unity'.

The criticism followed Kadeer's arrival in Tokyo on Tuesday for a 10-day visit to Japan, where she is scheduled to deliver a series of speeches on the human rights situation in China.

A group of university scholars has invited her to speak about the lives of ethnic minorities and women in China.

Kadeer's earlier visit to Japan in July sparked furor among Beijing officials, who accuse her World Uighur Congress (WUC) of separatism and terror.

The Chinese government also holds Kadeer's WUC responsible for a July 5 outbreak of violence in her hometown Xinjiang capital Urumqi that saw deadly clashes between mainly Muslim minority Uighurs and members of China's dominant Han group.

The conflict left 197 people dead and more than 1,600 others injured, according to an official toll.

Uighurs, a Turkic-speaking Central Asian people, have long accused China of decades of discrimination and repression — charges strongly denied by the Chinese government.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=109215§ionid=351020404.