In a series of developments highlighting the nation's difficulties in arranging official and semi-official exchanges with other countries, Japan promised to give "ample consideration" to a request by former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) to visit the country, while New Zealand refused a visa for Minister without Portfolio Lin Yi-fu (林義夫), it was reported yesterday.
The Japanese-language Mainichi Shimbun reported on Tuesday that Lee may want to visit Japan later this month, despite strident opposition from China.
While Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda suggested that Japan would not automatically reject a visa request, he didn't say whether Lee planned to visit. Lee last came to Japan in April 2001 for heart treatment, prompting protests from Beijing.
"I think this is the kind of matter that requires ample consideration," Hosoda told reporters.
The Mainichi said Lee wants to visit Japan with his family for sightseeing.
Lee hadn't filed a visa application as of yesterday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.
On Aug. 25, Premier Yu Shyi-kun made a rare stopover in Japan when his plane was diverted due to a typhoon. China suggested that he was using the storm as an excuse to engage in political activities, and expressed "serious concern" about the brief visit, a claim many observers scoffed at as "ludicrous."
Lee's 2001 visit drew sharp protests from China, but Japan decided to give him a visa on humanitarian grounds, and on the condition that he agreed to refrain from any political activity during his stay.
New Zealand has refused a visa for Lin to attend a New Zealand-Taiwan business council seminar in Wellington, the New Zealand Herald reported yesterday.
The council's chairwoman, Bertha Wright, said the seminar had been postponed because of the late refusal to grant a visa to Lin, according to the newspaper.
Member of parliament Peter Dunne, leader of minor political party United Future, said the refusal was because the government did not wish to offend China, with which it was currently trying to establish a free trade agreement.
Despite the fact that Australia also denied Lin a visa, Australia and Canada were generally far stronger in their decisions relating to China, he said.
A spokesman for Foreign Affairs Minister Phil Goff said the visa application probably would have been processed by the Immigration Service, but would have been referred to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade for comment.
Goff was not immediately available for comment but bureaucratic sources told reporters that Taiwan usually sent a vice-minister to attend council meetings, and the presence of a full minister would certainly have attracted China's attention. But the sources denied that China had applied pressure to New Zealand.
New Zealand had told Taiwan that a visa application from a minister would not be acceptable but expressed its hope that a vice-minister could attend a council meeting soon.
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