The Mainichi, 30 May 2012

TOKYO (Kyodo) — Four Democratic Party of Japan lawmakers rapped Chinese Ambassador to Japan Chen Yonghua on Tuesday for his criticism of Japan for allowing a general assembly of the World Uyghur Congress to be held in Tokyo earlier this month.

House of Representatives member Nobuyuki Fukushima and three other DPJ lawmakers told reporters that a letter sent by the ambassador, dated May 8, to around 20 DPJ legislators contained phrases calling for a curtailment of political activities that amounted to “interference in Japan’s political affairs.”

The DPJ lawmakers plan to submit a letter of protest to the Chinese ambassador shortly, Fukushima said at a news conference in the Diet building.

On May 18, Keiji Furuya, head of a group of LDP lawmakers who support China’s Uyghur ethnic minority, told reporters Chen had sent a letter of protest, also dated May 8, to more than 100 LDP lawmakers, criticizing Japan for allowing the general assembly to be held.

The letter to the LDP group also urged its members not to contact the organization’s exiled leader Rebiya Kadeer and other leaders.

The World Uyghur Congress, an organization that calls for political independence for Uyghurs in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in western China, held its four-day general assembly from May 14 in Tokyo, with around 120 representatives from Uyghur exile communities in over 10 countries.

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