The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mrs Robinson has arrived in China this morning with several human rights cases on the agenda, a member of her delegation said.
The delegation member declined to discuss which specific cases Mrs Robinson would bring up during her talks with Chinese officials.
Robinson is in China for the seventh and last time before stepping down from her UN post in September, after five years.
Coinciding with Robinson's arrival, an organization of exiles from western Xinjiang region issued an open letter asking her to appeal on behalf of the region's Uyghurs, a Turkic-speaking largely Muslim people.
During her visit Mrs Robinson will have meetings with senior officials and attend the opening of a workshop for judges and lawyers.
"The workshop will launch an important new area of human rights cooperation between her office and Chinese authorities," her office said in a previous statement.
The former Irish president will also "take stock" of the implementation of a memorandum of understanding concluded with China in November 2000, according to the statement.
She is scheduled to meet Cambodia's King Norodom Sianouk before leaving the Chinese capital on Tuesday.
The China visit is the first leg of an Asia tour that will also take her to Cambodia and East Timor.
AFP