According to a US-based rights group, China has released a leading Uighur political prisoner prior to Condoleezza Rice’s visit to Beijing.
Rebiya Kadeer, 58, was allowed to leave China for medical treatment in the US, the Dui Hua Foundation said.
Mrs Kadeer, a successful businesswoman, was given eight years’ in jail in 2000 for sending press cuttings overseas, “endangering national security”.
The release comes ahead of US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s arrival in Beijing on Sunday.
The US has said that resolving the case of the Chinese Muslim businesswoman was one of its highest priorities in discussions with China over its human rights record.
Although the release was officially granted for medical reasons, it is thought to have been prompted by Ms Rice’s arrival, the BBC’s Tony Cheng in Beijing says. […]
A prominent member of the Uighur ethnic minority in China’s north-west Xinjiang province, Mrs Kadeer was charged with passing information to foreigners, separatism and attempting to overthrow the state.
According to transcripts, her trial centred on local newspaper clippings on the treatment of Uighurs that she had sent to her husband in the US.
China is intolerant of any dissent in the sensitive border region of Xinjiang, and is worried about several groups it brands as separatists.
For some background on the huge province of Xinjiang, north of Tibet, see here and here.
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