Updated

Beijing has expressed displeasure with Turkey for accepting 174 members of the Uighur ethnic minority who fled China.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said Friday that Beijing opposes "any actions that aid and abet, or even support illegal migration."

The Uighur group, mostly women and children, arrived in Istanbul on Tuesday and are being settled in the central city of Kayseri.

Turkey has ethnic and linguistic ties to the Uighurs, members of a Muslim ethnic minority in China's far west Xinjiang region. The group has complained of cultural and religious suppression as well as economic marginalization under Chinese rule.

The 174 people were among about 250 Uighurs who were held in Thai camps after fleeing China.