Japan to give Taiwan’s Lee visa despite China fury

TOKYO- Japan said on Monday it would issue a visa as scheduled for former Taiwan president Lee Teng-hui to visit for sightseeing despite angry protests from China.

Relations between Tokyo and Beijing have already been chilled by a string of disputes, including one over Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visits to Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine, where war criminals are honoured with other Japanese war dead.

"We plan to issue a visa as scheduled," Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda told reporters. He did not say when the visa would be issued for the outspoken Lee.

Beijing, which sees self-ruled, democratic Taiwan as a renegade Chinese province, has protested to Japan over its decision to let Lee visit and urged Tokyo to scrap the plan.

Lee, 81, and his family are expected to arrive in Nagoya in central Japan on Dec. 27 and visit hot springs before leaving for home on December 31, Japanese media said.

Hosoda urged media not to follow Lee and report on his trip as the visit was "private" with no political intentions.

In Beijing on Monday, about 45 furious Chinese shouting slogans and carrying banners gathered outside the Japanese embassy in Beijing to protest over Lee's visit. One protester burned a drawing of Koizumi.

A spokesman for the group, calling themselves the "Patriotic Alliance", read aloud a lengthy statement denouncing Japan's decision and its militarist past.

"If the Japanese government doesn't heed the Chinese government's warning, and allows Lee Teng-hui to visit Japan, it will cause a fierce reaction," spokesman Zhang Jianyong told reporters.

"The Japanese side is intentionally provoking this issue and causing problems that are none of its business."

Lee tried to raise Taiwan's diplomatic profile during his 12 years as president, redefining the island's ties with China as "special state-to-state" relations in 1999 and causing Beijing to break off fence-mending negotiations which remain suspended to this day.

Lee stepped down as president in 2000 and became "spiritual leader" of a new party with an avid pro-independence stance.

He last came to Japan in 2001 for medical treatment, triggering an angry response from Beijing.

- REUTERS