Beijing yesterday repeated its strong displeasure over the Japanese government's decision to allow Lee Teng-hui to visit the country where the former Taiwan leader visited the Yasukuni Shrine.

"Based on what Lee Teng-hui has done in Japan, it is clear what his intentions are, and we have again expressed our strong dissatisfaction with the Japanese side for allowing Lee to visit Japan," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said yesterday during a regular press briefing.

Lee, 84, said his visit to the shrine was intended to pay respect to his elder brother, who died fighting for the Japanese during World War II and is enshrined alongside Japanese war criminals.

Jiang said China has made several representations to the Japanese side, urging it to properly deal with the Taiwan question as well as historical issues.

The Sino-Japanese relationship has been improving in the wake of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's visit to Beijing last October and Premier Wen Jiabao's ice-thawing Tokyo trip in April.

President Hu Jintao and Abe are scheduled to meet tomorrow on the sidelines of the G8 summit in Germany.

Crude interference

China yesterday hit back at US criticism of its policy on Sudan, expressing strong dissatisfaction and firm opposition to the US side.

The United States House of Representatives passed a resolution on Wednesday that Jiang said ignored China's efforts to resolve the Darfur issue while charging that China has stood in the way of halting bloodshed in the western Sudanese region.

Jiang said the resolution was a crude interference in China's domestic affairs and that China has made a serious representation to the American side.

She said it is widely acknowledged that China has worked to push forward the process of solving the Darfur issue in a political way and has communicated effectively with the relevant parties, including the United States.

She said China has attached great importance to the humanitarian situation in the region and has appointed a special envoy to handle the issue.

"The resolution has sent out a much mistaken signal, which is not conducive to Sino-US cooperation on the Darfur issue or to the proper solution of the issue," Jiang said.

Jiang said some American officials, in response to domestic political pressure, have taken advantage of the Darfur issue to attack China and have ulterior motives.

"We urged the United States to take an objective view on China's constructive role in Darfur and stop these mistaken attacks," she said.

Bush-Kadeer meeting

China yesterday also condemned a meeting between US President George W. Bush and Xinjiang separatist Rebiya Kadeer.

"Rebiya Kadeer is an out-and-out criminal," Jiang said.

"The US' act and wording wantonly interfere in China's internal affairs, and China is strongly discontented with and opposed to it," she said.

(China Daily 06/08/2007 page3)