Taiwan Blocks Visit by Uighur Leader Rebiya Kadeer

Exiled Uighur leader Rebiya Kadeer will not be allowed to visit Taiwan in December as she had planned, Taiwanese officials announced on Friday.

Kadeer had been invited to give a series of speeches in December. She was invited by Freddie Lin, a singer in a popular Taiwan rock band.

Lin is an advocate for Taiwan independence and a supporter of the opposition Democratic Progressive Party, or DPP.

Members of the DPP are condemning the ban on Kadeer.

[Trong Tsai, DPP Legislator]:
„Taiwanese people wish for Kadeer to come. Of course China opposes. The government chooses to listen to China, and this is very regretful.”

The bar on Kadeer comes just after the announcement that a film about Kadeer’s life was being pulled from the Kaohsiung [pronounced “Gaoxiong”] Film Festival.

The film, The 10 Conditions of Love, was instead shown this past week at the Kaohsiung Film Archive.

Kadeer is a Nobel Peace Prize nominee and the leader of the World Uyghur Congress.

(NTDTV)