But Beijing lashes out at Tokyo and Washington

US and Japanese decisions to grant visas to Taiwan's outspoken former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) were greeted with fury by China yesterday, raising fears of a further deterioration in the two countries' relations with Beijing.

US and Japanese officials announced within hours of each other on Friday that they would allow Lee to visit, triggering instant warnings from China that bilateral ties were at risk.

"It will have a major negative impact," Yan Xuetong (閻學通), head of the Institute of International Studies at Beijing's Qinghua University, said. "The China-US relationship will not improve soon."

Lee's US trip, scheduled to start April 30, comes at a sensitive time, as the Sino-US bilateral agenda is weighed down by explosive issues ranging from the unresolved EP-3 spy plane incident to human rights and trade.

The US, Taiwan's leading arms supplier, is also expected to announce shortly a list of weapons that it is willing to sell to the nation.

The People's Daily, the mouthpiece of China's ruling communist party, 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."

Two years ago, Lee infuriated the Chinese government by saying relations with Beijing should be on a "state-to-state" footing, a statement attacked by China as an attempt to formally split Taiwan from China.

While Taiwan insists that Lee should not be treated any differently from any other pensioner, Beijing still sees him as a dangerous political figure bent on perpetuating Taiwan's separation from mainland China.

"Lee ... is nothing but a political figure, and his visit can by no means be interpreted as a trip of `an ordinary citizen'," the state-run Xinhua news agency said.

"I just wonder why Lee has to go to hospital in Japan," said Qinghua University's Yan. "Why don't they invite the doctor to go to Taiwan?"

Lingering in Beijing's mind is a visit by Lee to the US in 1995, ostensibly for a reunion at his alma mater Cornell University.

That trip became a chance for Taiwan to raise its international profile and led to a sharp escalation in tensions with China which culminated in Chinese missiles being lobbed into shipping lanes near Taiwan.

Beijing and Tokyo are already at odds over Japanese history textbooks which China sees as whitewashing crimes committed by Japanese troops in the mainland during World War II.

"By granting a visa to Lee, the Japanese government has caused further damage to Sino-Japanese relations," the People's Daily editorial said.

Japan's outgoing Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori was creating yet another complication for an already troubled relationship, other Chinese media warned.

"He has apparently made a major political blunder which will be difficult for his successor to redress later," the China Daily said.