China warns Japan over visit by Taiwan's Lee

BEIJING, May 31 (Reuters) China warned Japan today it was putting relations at risk by allowing former Taiwan president Lee Teng-hui to visit, as Lee courted more controversy by suggesting he might go to a Tokyo war shrine.

Despised by Beijing for asserting self-ruled Taiwan's sovereignty, Lee could earn yet more wrath if he goes to the Yasukuni Shrine, which many in Asia see as a symbol of Japan's wartime militarism.

Although Japan says Lee's 11-day stay is for tourism only, China suggested that the trip would hurt ties already strained by issues stemming from Japan's World War Two aggression and disputes over borders and energy resources.

''The aim of Lee Teng-hui's visit to Japan is to push forward Taiwan independence and to undermine China-Japan relations,'' Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu told a regular news conference.

''We feel strongly dissatisfied with Japan for allowing Lee to visit the country.'' China considers Taiwan, which Japan colonised for half a century up to 1945, as its sovereign territory.

Lee, who led Taiwan from 1988 to 2000, said today he would like to visit Yasukuni, but sidestepped the issue of whether he would actually do so.

Yasukuni honours millions of Japanese war dead -- among them soldiers from Taiwan and Korea who fought for their colonial ruler at the time -- but also a handful of convicted war criminals, including wartime prime minister Hideki Tojo.

Lee's elder brother died fighting for the Japanese.

''I still haven't said anything to anybody,'' he told reporters when asked if he would visit Yasukuni. ''My older brother is honoured there, and in 60 years I haven't been once. If it was your big brother, what would your feelings be?'' A visit could further annoy Beijing and risk damaging the still fragile improvement of Sino-Japanese ties, only recently beginning to warm up after years of chill.

The turning point was the departure last year of prime minister Junichiro Koizumi, whose regular visits to Yasukuni brought routine condemnation from Beijing. His replacement, Shinzo Abe, has so far avoided going to the shrine.

But Jiang hinted on Thursday that Japan was not doing its part to keep relations on an even keel.

''It takes the efforts of both sides to maintain the stable development of relations between China and Japan,'' she said.

''We hope Japan can attach importance to China's serious concern, and properly resolve the issues of history and Taiwan through actions,'' she said.

Beijing claims sovereignty over Taiwan. Ever since 1949, when China's Nationalist forces fled to the island after losing power on the mainland to Mao Zedong's Communists, it has demanded the Taiwan authorities accept reunification.

On Thursday Japanese-educated Lee, accompanied by his wife, visited a museum to the Japanese haiku poet Matsuo Basho.

During his stay, Lee is set to receive a prize in memory of Japanese colonial administrator Shinpei Goto and tour Japanese temples throughout the country.

REUTERS PJ ND1654