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Lee to visit Japan if health holds up

Former president Lee Teng-hui and his wife Tseng Wen-hui cut Lee's birthday cake in Tahsi in Taoyuan County yesterday to celebrate Lee's upcoming 86th birthday. PHOTO: CHEN MEI-NIEN, TAIPEI TIMES

Former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) has said he may visit Japan later this year if his health permits, according to a press report yesterday.

"I will go this year if I am in good physical condition," Lee, 86, was quoted as saying by Japan's Jiji Press news agency in an interview.

Lee contracted tuberculosis last May and cancelled a visit to Japan scheduled for last September because he needed medical treatment at home.

In the interview, Lee praised a trip to Beijing made by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe after he took office in late September.

"Japan had kept kowtowing to China. But it needed to build a strategic relationship of trust and the visit to China by Prime Minister Abe was a success," Lee was quoted as saying.

Asked if Taiwan's independence was his ultimate goal, Lee answered: "I have never mentioned the independence of Taiwan. I have mentioned normalization of the state."

"Our goal is to have a name as a country with its own Constitution, and to join the United Nations as a member of the world," he said, according to Jiji Press. "I am taken as the leader of Taiwan's independence but it is not correct."

In April 2001, Lee made his first trip to Japan after stepping down as president. The visit, aimed at receiving medical treatment, prompted Beijing to cancel a visit to Japan by its then legislative chairman and former premier Li Peng (李鵬).

Lee also made a sightseeing trip to Japan in 2004.
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