China warns Japan about Taiwan visit

BEIJING (Reuters) – China warned Japan on Thursday that a
possible visit by former Taiwan president Lee Teng-hui could
further raise tensions between Beijing and Tokyo.

A Tokyo newspaper said on Wednesday Lee planned to travel
to Japan in May, and Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe
said the government had yet to decide whether to grant him a
visa.

China reviles Lee as a “splittist” who, as president from
1988 to 2000, pushed for Taiwan’s independence from the
mainland. China says Taiwan is a breakaway province that must
accept reunification.

“If you look at his past, you know him now; if you look at
him now, you know what he’ll be like in the future,” a
spokesman for China’s Foreign Ministry, Kong Quan, said of Lee.

Kong told reporters at a regular briefing that “Japan is
crystal clear what sort of man he is” and should deny him a
visa under any conditions. Otherwise, Kong said, Japan would be
“providing a speaking platform for Taiwan separatists.”

The daily Yomiuri newspaper said Lee, who studied in Japan
during World War Two and speaks fluent Japanese, may visit for
two or three weeks from May 10 at the invitation of private
groups.

Taiwan was a Japanese colony for 50 years until 1945, and
the two sides have maintained close links since Taiwan came
under the control of Nationalist forces fleeing mainland China
in the late 1940s.

Beijing’s ties with Tokyo are deeply strained by Japanese
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi’s repeated visits to a war
shrine seen by critics as a symbol of Japan’s past militarism.
Chinese officials have often said they regard Japan’s contacts
with Taiwan as another cause of strife.

Abe said that Lee had not applied for a visa, but added:
“We would deal with a visit by former president Lee or other
prominent figures from Taiwan appropriately in line with our
basic policy toward Taiwan.”

The Yomiuri said Japan would decide whether to issue Lee a
tourist visa after confirming whether he would refrain from
political activities.

A visit by Lee to Japan from late December 2004 to early
January 2005 sparked furious protests from Beijing, which
accused Tokyo of encouraging independence for Taiwan.

An earlier trip Lee made to the United States in 1995, when
still president, also provoked bitter criticism from Beijing.

Lee, who turns 83 on January 15, now heads a small party
that rejects Taiwan’s reunification with the mainland and
supports steps to independence.

He tried to raise Taiwan’s diplomatic profile during his
12-year tenure, redefining the island’s ties with China in 1999
as “special state-to-state” relations and causing Beijing to
break off fence-mending talks.

Japan angered China when it agreed with the United States
last February that the Taiwan Strait issue was a mutual
security concern.

The Chinese spokesman Kong also said on Thursday that
Japanese groups’ proposals to expand military cooperation with
Washington in the Strait may harm regional security.