2ND LD: China formally asks Japan to cancel visa to Taiwan's Lee

Asian Political News, Dec 20, 2004

BEIJING, Dec. 16 Kyodo

(EDS: UPDATING FIRST TWO GRAPHS)

Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Wu Dawei on Thursday summoned Japanese Ambassador to China Koreshige Anami to formally request that Japan withdraw its decision to issue an entry visa to former Taiwan President Lee Teng-hui by the end of the year, the Japanese Embassy said.

Earlier in the day, the Japanese government said it would issue an entry visa to Lee. Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi told reporters, ''We have no reason to reject'' Lee's visa application, indicating Japan understands the visit is a family sightseeing trip.

China called the decision an act that would signal support for Taiwan independence and threaten Sino-Japanese relations.

Speaking at a press briefing, Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao called Lee a ''Taiwan independence gang leader'' and accused Lee of wanting to go to Japan for political purposes, not just a personal visit as stated. Lee would seek Japan's help for his political motives, Liu said.

''I think for the act of the Japanese side to agree to let him visit Japan by itself is a provocation to China's unity, as well as supportive and conniving for the Taiwan independence momentum,'' Liu said.

''We are resolutely in opposition, and we also hope that...the Japanese side can immediately cancel this decision. Otherwise it will inevitably bring a new impact to Sino-Japanese relations,'' he said.

Japan should be ''clear about this,'' Liu said, and to allow a visit means ''the Japanese government departments don't care about Sino-Japanese relations.''

Lee and his family are expected to arrive in Nagoya on Dec. 27, visit cities far from Tokyo such as Kanazawa and Kyoto, and leave for home Dec. 31, sources familiar with Japan-Taiwan ties said.

Japan occupied Taiwan for 40 years at the beginning of the last century. Since then, business and political relations have been close between Japan and the island that China maintains is a breakaway province that must eventually be united, by use of force if necessary.

Lee, 81, grew up in Taiwan under Japanese rule. He later attended Kyoto University and speaks fluent Japanese. He headed the Nationalist Party (KMT) in Taiwan from 1988 to 2000 and became Taiwan's first directly elected president in 1996.

He advocated a distancing from China and resisted China's pressure to reunify, once suggesting a ''two nations'' theory for China-Taiwan relations. China rejected the idea.

Long-standing issues such as the perceived lack of remorse by Japan for its wartime aggression and Prime Minister Koizumi's visits to a war-linked shrine in Tokyo already strain Sino-Japanese relations.

Earlier in the day in Tokyo, Chinese Ambassador to Japan Wang Yi expressed his opposition to Lee's planned visit to Japanese Vice Foreign Minister Yukio Takeuchi.

If Lee's visa is approved, he will visit Japan for the first time since April 2001, when he went for heart treatment at a hospital in Okayama Prefecture.