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BEIJING: China on Tuesday expressed its "strong dissatisfaction" over a visit to Japan by exiled Uighur leader Rebiya Kadeer, whom it blames for fomenting recent deadly unrest in its Xinjiang region.
"Some forces in Japan plan to facilitate Rebiya Kadeer's visit to Japan and, despite China's grave concerns, Japan allowed her to enter. China expresses its strong dissatisfaction," foreign ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu told reporters.
"We want to reiterate that China is firmly against national separatism and is firm in upholding our national unity."
Kadeer arrived in Japan on Tuesday for a 10-day visit during which she will deliver a series of speeches on the human rights situation in China.
A group of university scholars has invited her to speak about the lives of ethnic minorities and women in China.
Kadeer donned a black coat and cap as she arrived at Narita Airport, east of Tokyo.
A previous Kadeer visit to Japan in July angered Beijing, which calls her World Uighur Congress a separatist terrorist movement and accuses it of orchestrating deadly unrest this summer in her Xinjiang homeland.
China has provided no evidence of the charge.
Riots erupted on July 5 in the Xinjiang capital Urumqi, pitting mainly Muslim minority Uighurs against members of China's dominant Han group.
The violence left 197 dead and more than 1,600 injured, mostly Han, according to an official toll.
Uighurs, a Turkic-speaking Central Asian people, have long accused China of decades of religious, cultural and political oppression.
- AFP/sc
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