Danish minister heads to China, days after Taiwan ex-leader's contested Denmark trip

COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Denmark's Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen will travel to China on Saturday for high-level meetings, just days after a visit by former Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen to Copenhagen drew strong condemnation from Beijing.

Rasmussen is due to meet China's foreign minister Wang Yi and trade minister Wang Wentao on a three-day visit marking the 75th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries, a Danish foreign ministry statement said on Thursday.

The visit comes after Tsai Ing-wen this week met Danish lawmakers and gave a speech at a democracy summit in Copenhagen that accused China of intensifying cyber attacks and military exercises against Taiwan. She also criticized what she referred to as China's "expansionist ambitions."

She was attending the Copenhagen Democracy Summit, organised by former NATO secretary general Anders Fogh Rasmussen's Alliance of Democracies, seen by senior Taiwan leaders as an important venue to get Taiwan's message out to the world.

The Chinese embassy in Copenhagen criticised Denmark for hosting Tsai and said it disregarded "international consensus on the one-China principle".

"The Taiwan question is purely China's internal affairs that allow no interference by any foreign government, organization or individual," it said in an emailed comment.

Tsai, who is also visiting Britain this week, has become a symbol of Taiwan's defiance against China's military threats. Denmark, like most countries, has no official diplomatic ties with Taiwan but maintains informal relations with the democratically-governed island.

"Our one-China policy remains firm, while it is clear that we do not see everything the same way, and on some points China poses a challenge," said Rasmussen, who has promoted a pragmatic approach to China as foreign minister and earlier as prime minister.

Diplomatic relations with China reached a low point after a visit by Dalai Lama to Copenhagen in 2009. Ties improved when Denmark later accepted a Chinese offer to send two pandas to Denmark as part of China's so-called "panda diplomacy."

(Reporting by Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen, additional reporting by Stine Jacobsen and Louise Rasmussen)