Some 20 Liberal Democratic Party lawmakers who see China as a threat will form a parliamentary league to push closer ties with Taiwan and India, possibly in May, LDP sources said Saturday.</PARAGRAPH> <PARAGRAPH>Members of the planned group, mainly junior and midranked LDP lawmakers, apparently aim to counter moves by pro-China groups within the LDP, the sources said.</PARAGRAPH> <PARAGRAPH>The LDP's pro-China ranks, including former Secretary General Koichi Kato and others critical of Abe, are trying to form another group by bringing together three like-minded camps.</PARAGRAPH> <PARAGRAPH>To counter the move, Keiji Furuya, a House of Representatives member, and other lawmakers who have similar stances to Abe's are expected to be key members of the new group that is seen as anti-China, the sources said.</PARAGRAPH> <PARAGRAPH>Known for his hawkish diplomatic stance toward China before he took office, Abe quickly visited the country in an apparent fence-mending gesture.</PARAGRAPH> <PARAGRAPH>As prime minister, Abe said in a policy speech in January that he will continue taking a proactive and more assertive approach in foreign policy and strengthen ties with countries, apparently excluding China, that share Japan's same basic values, including freedom and democracy.</PARAGRAPH> <PARAGRAPH>LDP Policy Research Council Chairman Shoichi Nakagawa, who has termed China a 'threat' because of its military spending, will become the group's senior adviser. In a Saturday speech in Kanazawa, Ishikawa Prefecture, Nakagawa said: ' –

President Hu Jintao should visit Japan first (before Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao), and hold exchanges with Prime Minister Abe, and perhaps with the Imperial family as well. Only then can we establish Japan-China relations on equal grounds."