China sent a warning to Japan not to issue a visa to Tibet’s exiled leader the Dalai Lama, who is planning to visit Japan in April, China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said.
“We received word that Japan has decided that it will issue a visa to the Dalai Lama,” Liu said. “We have brought our complaints to Japan and hope Japan will show restraint.”
China’s statement comes on the heels of Japan’s decision to issue a tourist visa to former Taiwan President Lee Teng-hui, whom China dislikes for his pro-Taiwan independence activities.
“We’re still observing before we decide what to do next” about Lee’s visa, Liu said at a regular press briefing today in Beijing. In 1991, China’s then National People’s Congress Chairman Li Peng canceled a scheduled visit to Japan in protest against Lee’s visit that year.
Lee, a 1945 graduate of Japan’s Kyoto Imperial University, retired as Taiwan’s president in 2000. Lee began a seven-day visit to Japan yesterday. He has been active as the honorary head of the pro-independence Taiwan Solidarity Union party, and China accuses him of being a “trouble maker and separatist.”
China opposes issuing a visa to Lee because the government in Beijing regards Taiwan as a renegade province. China and Taiwan have been fighting a diplomatic war for years. Both sides have been ruled separately since the 1949 civil war.
China also considers the Dalai Lama and his supporters to be “separatists who pursue separatism” for China’s Tibetan region and try to restrict the senior monk’s international movements.
