China criticized Japan for allowing exiled Uighur activist Rebiya Kadeer, accused of instigating this month’s ethnic riots in Xinjiang province, to visit Tokyo.
“We are very dissatisfied with the Japanese government’s decision to let Rebiya carry out her separatist activities in Japan, disregarding China’s serious objections,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said in a statement yesterday.
China’s government blames Kadeer, head of the Washington- based World Uighur Congress, for clashes between ethnic Uighurs and Han Chinese that left almost 200 people dead in Urumqi, capital of China’s westernmost Xinjiang province. Kadeer denies the claim.
Kadeer plans to visit Japan for five days and meet with officials from Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party to seek support for Uighurs, Agence France-Presse reported yesterday. She will speak to the media tomorrow, the news agency said.
Kadeer, a mother of 11, was once ranked as China’s 34th- richest person with a fortune of $25 million, according to the Shanghai-based Hurun Report, and was on China’s top political body for people who aren’t members of the Communist Party.
Kadeer spent six years in prison after criticizing the government over its policies in Xinjiang. Under pressure from the Bush administration, China released Kadeer in 2005 and she moved to Washington, heading the organization of exiled Uighurs.
