China protests Taiwan's VP paying respects at Abe's memorial

Taiwan's Vice President Lai Ching-te, center, leaves Zojoji temple after the funeral of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Tokyo. Photo / AP

China has filed a formal protest with Japan over the presence of the Taiwanese vice-president at a memorial for assassinated former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

China claims Taiwan as a breakaway province to be reunited by force if necessary and objects to any expression of its independent political identity.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said Taiwanese authorities had "latched onto the opportunity for political manipulation", and that Beijing has "made stern complaints with Japan in Beijing and Tokyo and made clear its position".

"Its political scheme can never succeed," Wang said at a daily briefing.

A woman writes her name and a message after laying a bouquet of flowers at a designated stand set up for former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Photo / AP

Taiwan's Vice-President Lai Ching-te paid his respects at Abe's Tokyo residence. Lai was later photographed leaving the Zojoji temple in downtown Tokyo where Abe's funeral was held.

Lai is the most senior Taiwanese official to visit Japan since Tokyo severed formal diplomatic relations with Taipei in 1972 in deference to Beijing.

Abe was known as a staunch supporter of Taiwan, a Japanese colony for 50 years where public sentiment strongly favours Tokyo.

China and Taiwan split amid civil war in 1949 and Beijing has increasingly sought to isolate the island's government diplomatically. In deference to China, Taiwan, with its 23 million people and high-tech economy, has been shunned by the United Nations and can only participate in global sporting events as "Chinese Taipei".

A hearse carrying the body of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, moves past the House of Parliament after his funeral in Tokyo. Photo / AP

China now regularly sends warplanes across the Taiwan Strait and into Taiwan's air defence identification zone to advertise its threat to use force if the island makes a formal declaration of independence, and to warn away its supporters, chiefly the US, and Japan.

After resigning as prime minister, Abe last year angered Beijing with a speech in which he issued strong support for Taiwan and said that "military adventure would lead to economic suicide".