Exiled World Uyghur Congress (WUC) president Rebiya Kadeer said in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) at the end of last month that she wishes to visit Taiwan in August, a plan a Kadeer-friendly group in Taiwan suggested Kadeer defer.
Taiwan Friends of Uighurs (TFU) co-director Marie Yang (楊月清) said that Kadeer should give President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) six months to sort out cross-strait relations before she visits the nation.
Kadeer said that if the Taiwanese government would issue her a visa, she hopes to lead a WUC delegation to Taiwan to meet with Tsai.
Photo: Chang Mao-sen, Taipei Times
Kadeer also said that the WUC has been in close contact with the TFU, founded by Paul Lin (林保華), and plans to create a WUC representative office in Taiwan and has sent an envoy to provide more information about East Turkestan to the Taiwanese.
Yang said that the TFU would suggest inviting Kadeer to attend a cultural or academic event in Taiwan “so that it would be less politically sensitive and Beijing would not have anything to protest.”
However, Yang said that the visit could be arranged for a later time, saying: “Do not put pressure on Tsai in July or August, because there is no rush.”
Yang said that former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) had blocked visits by Kadeer, but the government would definitely allow her to visit, but added that since this is a sensitive time for cross-strait relations, the visit should take place six months later.
Other TFU executives suggested that Kadeer could visit Taiwan to talk about democratization, human rights and Muslim issues in Taiwan on the invitation of the Chinese Muslim Association, instead of focusing on China.
Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Wu Chih-chung (吳志中) said that Kadeer is no ordinary person, and her visit to Taiwan would not be a simple diplomatic issue, but a political one.
He said that although the new government adheres to new values and has different considerations, this is not a decision that the ministry could make alone.
If Kadeer files an application, the ministry should discuss the issue with the Mainland Affairs Council and the National Security Council, as “this is concerns the interests of the nation as a whole,” he said.
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