China thought their extradition necessary to undercutting international sympathy for Uighur independence seekers.

And given that the Uighur bastion of Xinjiang is close to China s borders with Afghanistan and Pakistan, the US was unwise to raise Chinese hackles in this way.

Indeed, former President George W. Bush welcomed Rebiya Kadeer, a leader of the exiled Uighur independence movement, to the White House, embittering many Chinese.

Muslim Uighurs from Xinjiang province were captured in Taliban training campus and jailed at Guantánamo Bay with other international terrorists from 2002 through 2009.

By recklessly denying China s request to extradite Uighur extremists to China for trial, the US showed scant regard for an issue of paramount importance the threat posed to China s hard won unity by separatists.

China s brusque treatment of Japan s leaders probably was intended as a rebuke not only over the Senkaku Islands issue, but also for hosting the Fourth General Meeting of the World Uyghur Congress in Tokyo in May.

Previously, such meetings had been held in Germany and the United States, and this one, which stressed the importance of protecting human rights and preserving the traditions, culture, and language of the Uyghur people, received no official sanction or endorsement from the Japanese government.

Moreover, China s hands off policy could end up jeopardizing its investments in Afghanistan not to mention the security threat that would arise were a re empowered Taliban to provide aid or sanctuary to the increasingly Islamist Uighur separatists in China s Xinjiang region.