Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka told her Chinese counterpart, Tang Jiaxuan, earlier this month that Japan will not issue an entry visa to former Taiwanese President Lee Teng-hui in the future, even for visits to receive medical treatment, informed sources said Saturday.
The remarks came during a telephone conversation between the two ministers on May 7, but the comments were not previously discussed with Foreign Ministry officials, the sources said.
Beijing strongly criticized Tokyo for allowing Lee to visit Japan for four days in late April for medical tests by a Japanese doctor as a followup to an operation on his heart in November 2000.