Annette Lu accuses China of blocking Egypt trip

Lu, of the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), now in opposition, was scheduled to speak at the Liberal International congress in Cairo over the weekend, the Apple Daily said. But Lu, 65, who had a visa to the country, was notified by the Egyptian authorities that she would not be allowed in, the report said, citing unnamed sources.

“Of course this has something to do with Beijing,” Lu told the newspaper without elaborating.

Lu, who was also planning to visit Thailand en route to Egypt, also accused the Thai government of bowing to pressure from China to refuse her entry, it said.

Tensions with China mounted during the eight-year rule of the DPP, which ended in May 2008, over its policies pushing for Taiwan's independence from the mainland. Most recently, the DPP incurred the wrath of China after it invited exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, labeled by Beijing as a “splittist”, to visit the island this summer.

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