Taiwan ban on Uighur visit

TAIPEI – Taiwan will not allow exiled Uighur leader Rebiya Kadeer to visit the island as proposed in December, a move likely …

TAIPEI – Taiwan will not allow exiled Uighur leader Rebiya Kadeer to visit the island as proposed in December, a move likely to please China but upset anti-China factions at home.

Ms Kadeer, a former businesswoman who now leads exile group the World Uyghur Congress, wanted to go to Taiwan in December for a series of speeches at the invitation of an entertainer close to Taiwan’s anti-China opposition Democratic Progressive Party.

Taiwan interior minister Chiang Yih-hwa said the government had confirmed it would not allow the visit, citing safety concerns. “The government’s decision today conforms to the interests of the nation and the entire public,” Taiwan’s ruling China-friendly Nationalist Party said in a statement.

Taiwan’s opposition leaders have already infuriated China, which sees the self-ruled island as part of its territory, by hosting the Dalai Lama in early September and showing a documentary on Ms Kadeer this week.

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China says Ms Kadeer orchestrated ethnic violence in July in Xinjiang, a largely ethnic Uighur region of northwest China, killing about 200 people. She denies the allegation.

China and Taiwan have worked since mid-2008 to improve relations and are set for high-level trade talks in December, close to Ms Kadeer’s proposed visit.

China put off low-level visits to Taiwan over the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual leader seen by Beijing as a separatist, and boycotted a southern city that both hosted him and screened the film on Ms Kadeer, The 10 Conditions of Love.

Chinese officials might have deferred the long-sought trade talks with Taiwan if Ms Kadeer had visited, said Alexander Huang, a strategic studies professor at Tamkang University in Taipei.

Ms Kadeer’s group has condemned the decision to deny a visa.

The documentary on Ms Kadeer raised local awareness of Uighurs in China, said Freddy Lim, a rock star who invited her. – (Reuters)