Opposition Diet members meet Uighur activists
The Japan Times, 17 May 2012
Keiji Furuya, who leads a group in the Liberal Democratic Party that supports the Uyghur people, revealed Tuesday that Chinese Ambassador to Japan Cheng Yonghua urged the group not to provide any support for the World Uyghur Congress, including its leader, Rebiya Kadeer, currently visiting Japan.
Furuya criticized the move as interference by China in Japan’s domestic affairs.
According to Furuya, the LDP group received Chen’s request in a letter ahead of its meeting Tuesday in Tokyo with members of the World Uyghur Congress.
During the meeting, Kadeer called for support for the Uyghur people, mostly in China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, saying, “We are now in danger of extinction.”
At a four-day general assembly of the Uyghur congress that began Monday in Tokyo, Kadeer criticized Beijing for “stepping up its violent, repressive policies” since the 2009 riots in the regional capital, Urumqi, that killed several hundred people.
China has branded her a “criminal” and accuses the group of masterminding the riots.