Australia: China axed visit over Uighur leader

Australia on Tuesday said China downgraded an official visit this month in protest over Canberra's decision to give a visa to exiled Uighur leader Rebiya Kadeer, expressing "regret" over the move, AFP reported.

A spokesman for Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said Vice-Foreign Minister He Yafei pulled out of the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) and was replaced by a more junior envoy.

"We regret that the Chinese government has felt obliged to take these steps, since the government's position on the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region is clear," he added.

China was represented at the Cairns forum by Wang Yongqiu, special envoy for the Pacific Islands Forum. China has sent higher-level officials to previous forums, Smith's spokesman said.

Kadeer's visit this month was allowed despite strong objections from China, which blames her for deadly unrest in Xinjiang last month and summoned Australia's ambassador in protest.

Chinese foreign ministry officials in Beijing declined to comment when contacted by AFP.

The row is the latest to hit relations between the key trading partners which were tested last month by China's detention of an Australian mining executive on spying allegations, later changed to industrial espionage.

Opposition leader Malcolm Turnbull accused the government of a "ham-fisted" approach to China, saying relations were at their lowest point in years despite pledges from Mandarin-speaking Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to boost ties.

"Our relations with China are at... the lowest ebb they have been for many, many years," Turnbull said. "(Rudd) has been making an absolutely ham-fisted effort with our diplomatic relations."

"He has mishandled relations... he obviously has no leverage with China left at all," Turnbull added.

Resource-rich Australia has profited from China's lightning growth over the past decade with two-way trade worth 58 billion dollars (48 billion US) last year, official figures show.