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Lee pans Beijing's criticism of visit

"The man told police that he attacked Lee [Teng-hui] because he didn't like him."

a Japanese police officer

Former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) reiterated his stance that Taiwan is independent of China and slammed Beijing over its criticism of his visit to a Tokyo war shrine as he wrapped up a trip to Japan yesterday.

China has accused Lee of using his visit to Japan to push for independence.

Lee has defended his trip as a "private event."

Speaking during a press conference yesterday held at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan to mark the conclusion of his 11-day visit, Lee reiterated his longtime position that Taiwan is independent.

"Taiwan is already an independent country," Lee said. "It is natural that the Taiwanese clearly assert that Taiwan is theirs and that Taiwan is an independent country based on peace and democracy."

He said Taiwan must continue its democratic development and urged China to democratize its political system to grant its people a higher level of freedom.

At Narita Airport, a Chinese man threw two plastic bottles at Lee as he was about to leave Japan yesterday, but both missed and Lee was unhurt, airport police said.

"As he [Lee] was proceeding through the security area at the airport, a Chinese man hurled two plastic bottles," a police officer at Narita airport said. "No one was hurt."

The man was taken into custody on the spot, he said.

"The man told police he had attacked Lee because he didn't like him," the officer said. "He threw the bottles at him knowing who he was."

Police were questioning the man,who identified himself as a 34-year-old Chinese national living in Japan, to learn more about his identity and motives, he said.

Both bottles were filled with soft drinks, a police official said.

Lee also accused Beijing of overreacting to his recent pilgrimage to the Yasukuni shrine, and of using the issue to divert attention from its problems at home.

Taiwan is a former Japanese colony and Lee's elder brother, who was killed in 1945 while serving with Japan's navy during World War II, is listed among the 2.5 million war dead honored at Yasukuni.

Lee said that because his family never received his brother's remains, he did not have another place to commemorate him and that a visit to the shrine was an appropriate way to pay his respects.

But China views the shrine as a glorification of Japan's militaristic past because it also enshrines executed war criminals.

"The Yasukuni problem was invented by the Chinese and Koreans because they could not deal with problems in their own countries," Lee said. "Even so, the Japanese government has been too soft in dealing with them."

"I see no problem with honoring young soldiers who gave their lives for their country," he said. "That is not something that foreign governments should criticize."

Pointing to his own experiences, Lee said that during his 12 years as president he visited the Martyr's Shrine in Taipei twice a year to pay his respects to the heroes who died in a revolutionary movement against the Qing Dynasty in 1911 in China, even though the movement had nothing to do with Taiwan.
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