Former Taiwanese President makes diplomatic coup

Former Taiwanese President Lee Teng-hui arrived in Japan today on a trip that marked a diplomatic coup for the isolated island but threatened to exacerbate tense relations between Japan and China.

Lee flew into Kansai International Airport two days after a divided Japanese government agreed to allow him to visit to seek treatment for a heart ailment at a hospital in southwestern Japan.

That decision enraged China, which accuses the 78-year-old retired president of opposing its sacred goal of achieving reunification with Taiwan.

The communist government sees Taiwan as a renegade province and is implacably opposed to any dealings with the island’s leadership.

An editorial in China’s state-run People’s Liberation Army Daily said Lee’s visit to Japan ‘‘has undermined the political basis of the China-Japan relationship, hurt the feelings of the Chinese people (and) will damage the health of the two countries’ relationship’’.

Expecting a backlash from Beijing, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori’s administration agonised for a week over whether to issue a visa to Lee.

Japan finally gave the green light on Friday - on the understanding that the Taiwanese leader, who left office last year, not participate in political activities during his five-day stay.

Foreign Minister Yohei Kono explained that the decision was based on ‘‘humanitarian considerations’’ and said that he hoped China would understand. But he admitted that relations between Tokyo and Beijing would probably take a turn for the worse.

The Chinese government was already fuming over the Japanese government’s decision to impose tariffs on Chinese agricultural products this week.

The trade friction flared up just weeks after a dispute over a Japanese history textbook criticised as whitewashing Japan’s record of aggression in Asia during World War II.

Adding insult to injury, just hours after Lee received his visa to come to Japan, the US announced that he would be allowed in early May to travel to his alma mater Cornell University.

After Lee’s last visit to Cornell in 1995, China recalled its ambassador from Washington, postponed a series of high-level meetings and held threatening military exercises near Taiwan.

Although Taiwan is one of the world’s top trading powers, most nations refuse to have formal diplomatic relations with its government out of deference to China’s demands.

Lee has never made his adoration of Japan a secret. During his childhood, Taiwan was a Japanese colony and Lee has said he grew up thinking that he was more Japanese than ethnic Chinese. Most Taiwanese can trace their roots to China.

The former president speaks Japanese and he attended Kyoto Imperial University, predecessor to Kyoto University. He has co-authored books with Japanese writers and journalists that have been well-received in Japan.

He is scheduled to travel from Osaka, 255 miles west of Tokyo, to the nearby city of Kurashiki on Tuesday to visit a hospital there before returning to Taiwan on Thursday.