| |
 |
China lodges protest over Lee visas
|
CHINA last week strongly protested against the Japanese and US governments respectively for their decisions to grant visas to Taiwan's former leader Lee Teng-hui.
Vice Foreign Minister Wang Yi urgently met with Japanese Ambassador to China Koreshige Anami on Friday evening and lodged solemn representations with the Japanese Government on its decision.
Foreign Mministry spokesman Zhu Bangzao said on Saturday that China is "extremely dissatisfied with and opposed to" the US Government's decision to grant a tourism visa to Lee Teng-hui.
“China demands ... that the United States immediately corrects its error in order to prevent Sino-US relations from suffering further damage," Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhu Bangzao said on Saturday.
“This is another erroneous step the United States has taken on the Taiwan issue," Zhu said when answering a reporter's question.
“This has violated the three Sino-US joint communiques and relevant commitments made by the United States and interfered in China's internal affairs," Zhu said, adding that the Chinese Foreign Ministry has lodged solemn representations with the US side.
The spokesman said that although Lee has stepped down, he is still carrying out activities in the world to separate China.
Zhu said Lee has ulterior political motives behind his visit, and the so-called “visit by private persons" is nothing but a camouflage.
The US Government's decision to allow Lee to visit the United States can only boost the arrogance of the “Taiwan independence" forces to split China, aggravate the tension across the Taiwan Straits, and undermine the cross-straits and Sino-US relations, he pointed out.
The official People's Daily called Lee's plans to visit Japan a “political plot."
“Lee is by no means ‘an ordinary citizen', but the chief representative of forces aiming for ‘Taiwan independence'," the paper said in an editorial.
The paper warned that by granting the visa to Lee, the Japanese Government had caused “further damage to Sino-Japanese relations".
Japan said on Friday its decision to allow Lee to visit next week was for “humanitarian" reasons only, enabling him to see a heart surgeon.
“We approve Lee Teng-hui's visit to our country purely on humanitarian ground. Therefore, his activities in Japan should be limited to receiving medical treatment, and we do not suppose he will conduct any political activities," Japanese Foreign Minister Yohei Kono told reporters after meeting Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori and Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda.(SD-Agencies)
|
|
|
|
