TOKYO: Tokyo has issued an entry visa to Rebiya Kadeer in readiness for next week’s World Uyghur Congress, a Japan-based Uighur organisation said Friday, provoking the ire of Beijing.

“The visa was issued early on Friday,” said a member of the Japan Uyghur Association.Kadeer, the exiled head of the movement, is set to arrive in Japan on Sunday for a five-day meeting of the body that China considers a “splittist” organisation.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei condemned the Japanese move.

“We express our strong opposition to the relevant actions of the Japanese side,” he said.

“The World Uyghur Congress is closely connected to terrorist organisations and is a downright anti-China splittist organisation,” he told reporters in Beijing.

Kadeer, who lives in the US, last visited Japan in 2009.

Her visit from this weekend coincides with a summit in Beijing that will see Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda meet his Chinese opposite number Wen Jiabao and South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak. —AFP