On September 19, Taiwan held a memorial service for former President Lee Teng-hui, who will be buried in the Special Honors section of the Wuzhishan National Demonstration Cemetery after the farewell service on October 7. The Japan-China Parliamentarians Forum, a cross-party coalition of Japanese parliamentarians, sent a delegation headed by former Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori to Taiwan to attend Lee’s farewell ceremony, but on August 9, Nobuo Kishi, the younger brother of Shinzo Abe, went with him to Taiwan for the Japan-China Parliamentarians Forum. On September 19, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin presided over a regular press conference, in which he was asked by reporters: “Japan’s Joint News Agency (JNA) reported that former Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori was not able to go to Taiwan with Tsai Ing-wen on September 18.
On September 19, at a regular press conference hosted by Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin, a reporter asked: Japan’s Kyodo News reported that former Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori said during a meeting with Tsai Ing-wen in Taiwan on September 18 that the Japanese leader said he would be willing to speak to Tsai on the phone if he had the chance. May I ask what the Chinese side has to say about this?
The Japanese side made it clear that what was reported in the media would never happen.
In an interview with reporters at Haneda Airport on September 18, Keisuke Furuya, chairman of the Japan-Chinese Parliamentarians Forum, said, “Prime Minister Kan said to them, “Come and go smoothly.
A memorial service for Lee Teng-hui was held at 9:30 a.m. on Sept. 19 at the Truth University Chapel in New Taipei City, with the assistance of the Taiwan Presbyterian Church and in accordance with Christian worship procedures.
In addition to Lee’s relatives and friends, about 800 people attended the service, including President Tsai Ing-wen and senior government officials. Among the foreign dignitaries present were former Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori, Chairman of the Japan-China Parliamentarians Forum Keishi Furuya, LDP Youth Bureau Chief Koryo Makishima, and U.S. Under Secretary of State for Economic Growth, Energy, and the Environment William Krasch.
On August 9, Nobuo Kishi and Yoshiro Mori and his delegation took a chartered flight from Tokyo Haneda Airport to Taipei Songshan Airport, and after a meeting with Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen, they went to Taipei Taipei Hotel, where a memorial service for Lee was held, to lay flowers and pay their respects.
On the 19th, Yutai Izumi, representative of the Japan-Taiwan Exchange Association Taipei Office, read a message from former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, in which Abe pointed out that Lee had made “great contributions to the development of goodwill and friendship between Japan and Taiwan, and to the development of democracy in Taiwan.
Mori Yoshiro held talks with Tsai Ing-wen at Taiwan’s presidential palace on the 18th, where Tsai expressed her blessing for the start of Kan’s new cabinet and her hope that Japan-Taiwan relations would be further developed.
Recent Comments