China-Japan ties are improving. Could a Taiwanese official test that trend?

At this year’s commemorations in Japan for the US atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, there was a major departure from the past.

Seated among the attendees in both cities was Lee Yi-yang, head of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in Japan, the island’s de facto embassy in the country.

At the Nagasaki event on Saturday, Lee sat with representatives from international non-government organisations, “inappropriate seating arrangements” that he attributed to pressure from Beijing, according to Taiwanese media reports.

Nevertheless, a Taiwanese official has never attended these events before and, after the ceremony in Hiroshima on Wednesday, Lee said the island hoped to have a presence there every year.

Lee’s appearance is part of a bigger effort by Taiwan to strengthen its unofficial bonds with Tokyo and raise the island’s international profile. Observers said Beijing would take a dim view of the participation, but both it and Tokyo would be careful to not undermine improving relations.

Lee’s attendance at the Hiroshima and Nagasaki events came two weeks after Taiwanese Foreign Minister Lin Chia-lung made a rare visit to Japan.

  

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