Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said his department received a complaint from a city mayor about the way Chinese officials voiced their opposition to part of Kadeer's visit to Australia, and had called in Chinese officials to discuss it.“Embassies' diplomats, officials are entitled to put views in Australian society, but when they put those views, those views have to be put appropriately,” Smith told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio. “They can be put firmly, but they need to be put politely and appropriately.” Beijing has strongly and repeatedly objected to Kadeer's visit, which included the screening of a documentary about her at a film festival in the southern city of Melbourne and a speech on Tuesday at the National Press Club in Canberra.
Beijing accuses Kadeer of inciting riots between Muslim minority Uighurs and members of the dominant Han Chinese group in western Xinjiang province that left 197 people dead and more than 1,700 injured, according to China's government. Kadeer, 62, who has campaigned for greater autonomy and human rights for Uighurs, denies instigating the violence.
