China's expressed anger on Friday about a visit next month to Japan by Taiwan opposition leader and presidential frontrunner Tsai Ing-wen, saying Japan should not give anyone a platform to promote Taiwan independence views.
Tsai's Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), which has traditionally favoured Taiwan's formal independence, says it believes only the island's people can decide its future. Beijing takes this to mean it wants independence.
Nationalist forces retreated to Taiwan at the end of a civil war with the Communists in 1949, and Beijing has never renounced the use of force to bring what it views as a renegade province under its control.