LEAD: Taiwan's ex-President Lee withdraws visa application

Asian Political News, Nov 18, 2002

TOKYO, Nov. 12 Kyodo

(EDS: ADDING DETAILS)

Former Taiwan President Lee Teng-hui withdrew his application Tuesday for a visa to visit Japan to deliver a speech to students of Tokyo's Keio University, the Foreign Ministry said.

Lee withdrew the application at 1:15 p.m. Japan time, but the reason the former president withdrew his application was not immediately known, Press Secretary Hatsuhisa Takashima said at a news conference.

Lee applied for the visa through an agent around noon Monday at the Taipei office of the Interchange Association, Japan's de facto diplomatic mission for Taiwan, for a multiple-entry visa valid for five years.

Later Monday, China warned Japan not to issue a visa to the former Taiwan leader for any reason. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Kong Quan issued a statement saying Beijing ''has consistently opposed a visit to Japan by Lee Teng-hui under any name.''

Japan switched in 1972 its diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to China, which sees the island a renegade province.

Also on Monday, Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Kosei Ueno said at a news conference in Tokyo that Lee's application stated the purpose of his proposed visit was to speak at a student gathering during an annual festival at Keio University.

''But Keio University and the organizer of the festival told (the government) they had no plan to hold such a gathering'' as part of the festival's official events, Ueno said.

Festival organizers and university authorities, anxious to avoid being cut off from cultural and other exchanges with China, apparently decided to forego the gathering planned by a group of students to invite Lee as a speaker.

Lee's most recent visit to Japan in April 2001 to undergo medial treatment in Okayama Prefecture set off protest by China, including its scrapping of a planned visit to Japan by Li Peng, chairman of the standing committee of the National People's Congress.