AP News, May 31st, 2007
China issued a stern reminder to Japan on Thursday that it considers a visit to Tokyo by former Taiwan President Lee Teng-hui to be politically motivated and suggested the trip could damage relations between the two sides.
Lee, who served as Taiwanese president from 1988 to 2000, arrived in Japan on Wednesday. He has been a strong critic of Beijing, which claims sovereignty over self-ruled Taiwan more than five decades after the two sides split during a civil war. The mainland has threatened war if the island takes steps to make its de facto independence permanent.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said the purpose of Lee's visit was to push for Taiwanese independence and undermine China-Japan relations.
"We express our strong dissatisfaction toward the Japan government for allowing Lee Teng-hui to go to Japan for those activities," Jiang said at a regular news briefing.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has stressed that Lee's visit is private and that he did not expect it to hurt Tokyo's relations with Beijing. Ties have been frayed by disputes over exploitation of underwater gas and oil deposits, territory, and interpretation of history, but a visit by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao to Japan in April helped ease their differences.
Jiang suggested that support for Taiwan's independence could damage the warming relations.
"To properly handle the Taiwan question and historical issues is the basic condition for the healthy development of our bilateral ties," she said.
Japan has official diplomatic relations with Beijing, but not with Taiwan. China regularly opposes visits by Taiwanese officials to countries with which it has diplomatic ties.
Lee's office has said the 11-day trip will focus on visits to Japanese cultural sites. His itinerary, however, also includes speeches and a news conference.
Lee has said he will visit the Yasukuni war shrine, which is vilified by Japan's neighbors, especially China and the Koreas, for symbolizing the country's militaristic past.
Lee has a brother enshrined at the Tokyo shrine, which deifies Japan's 2.5 million war dead _ including executed Class-A war criminals _ along with tens of thousands of Koreans and Taiwanese who were drafted into Japan's military.
