Malaysia-China Business Council (MCBC) chairperson Hew Kuan Yau's freedom of expression "must be respected", said Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul.
However, the youth and sports minister took issue with Hew's comic book about China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) being in schools.
"He can definitely express his freedom of expression, we need to respect that.
"But the point at which it starts entering schools, and beyond that, the indoctrination which claims that Malay Muslims... who sympathise with Uyghurs are automatically labelled as radical, is just categorically false and racist.
"You are equating Malays who has sympathy for a particular community as those who are radical. This is something which should be condemned," Syed Saddiq told reporters at the Parliament lobby today.
He added that while it is important for young people to develop critical thinking, it must be separated from "indoctrination of a particular political viewpoint".
In Hew's comic, there is a section which states that "young Malay radicals" concerned with the plight of Uyghurs cause them to have a negative perception of China.
The former DAP member in a Facebook posting on Sunday, argued that radical does not mean extremist and instead has a positive connotation in Western leftist circles.
"Among Western leftists, if you call a youth 'radical', they would not get angry, and actually welcome it," Hew said.
The section on Malay sentiment on Uyghurs is on the same page which discusses Malaysians sympathising with extremist group Jemaah Islamiah, and police efforts to curb the spread of Islamic extremist propaganda.
The Chinese government has placed some 1.5 million Uyghur Muslims in "re-education camps" which it claims was necessary to combat Islamic extremism.
Despite wide condemnation by the international community, Putrajaya has largely remained silent on the issue. Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad explained this was because China was a "powerful country".
The BRI comic book fell in the spotlight after former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak complained about the book being distributed in schools, leading to the Education Ministry issuing a ban.
Hew has defended the comic book he authored, saying it is meant to promote a better understanding of China's BRI project.- Mkini
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