China condemns Japan for hosting Taiwan commander

BEIJING, Aug 25 (Reuters) China today condemned Japan for hosting a senior military commander from Taiwan, the self-ruled island Beijing claims as its own.

It was the latest denunciation of Tokyo by China's Foreign Ministry as relations between the two neighbours have deteriorated in recent years.

The ministry reacted to Japanese media reports that Taiwan Army Commander-in-Chief Hu Chen-pu was in Japan and had observed a live-ammunition drill by Japanese forces yesterday.

''The Japanese government's allowing Hu to visit is a serious incident in China-Japan relations,'' ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said in a statement on its Web site (www.fmprc.gov.cn), ''The Chinese side has lodged a strong protest against this act.'' A Taiwan Defence Ministry official today told Reuters that Hu is vacationing in Japan with his wife and daughter, adding he was not aware that China had condemned the visit.

''We strongly demand the Japanese government to honour its 'One China' stance with real actions ... and prevent similar incidents from happening again,'' Liu said.

China requires nations it has diplomatic relations with to adhere to a ''One China'' principle and cut official ties with Taipei, which has been split with Beijing since 1949 after the Chinese civil war but still styles itself as Republic of China.

Beijing has vowed to attack if the democratic island declares formal independence.

China-Japan relations are at their lowest ebb in decades, in part because of Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's repeated visits to the Yasukuni Shrine, where convicted World War Two war criminals are honoured among the nation's other war dead.

Beijing says Koizumi's visits to the shrine -- the latest was last week -- are a symbol of unrepentant Japanese militarism.

The two Asian powers, wary of each other's military ambitions, have also been at odds over sea boundaries, energy and diplomatic influence. China is especially riled by Japan's close ties to Taiwan.

China was upset in 2005 when the United States and Japan identified Taiwan as a mutual security concern.

REUTERS KR VV1642