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Lien accepts invitation to visit mainland
By Xing Zhigang (China Daily/chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2005-04-01 06:28
Hopes of improved cross-Straits relations received a further boost yesterday
when Beijing extended an official invitation to Taiwan-based Kuomintang (KMT)
Chairman Lien Chan and Lien accepted the invitation.
Jia Qinglin, a Standing Committee member of the Political Bureau of the
Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, offered the formal invitation
just one day before the KMT delegation completes April 1 its first official
mainland visit in 56 years.
Jia Qinglin
(right), Standing Committee member of the Political Bureau of the CPC
Central Committee, meets Chiang Pin-kun, Kuomintang vice-chairman and
leader of the 34-member delegation from Taiwan, March 31 at Beijing's
Great Hall of the People. Jia, also chairman of the Chinese People's
Political Consultative Conference National Committee, is the highest
Beijing official to meet Chiang in the KMT's first official mainland visit
in 56 years. [China Daily] | According to
a Chinataiwan.org report, Lien, who is in Tokyo, on Friday expressed his
pleasure to accept the invitation and fix a date for the mainland visit after he
returns to Taipei.
At a press conference in Tokyo Friday, Lien described his upcoming visit
to the mainland as a "trip of peace" across the Taiwan Strait.
Led by
Vice-Chairman Chiang Pin-kung, the 34-member delegation made a five-day trip to
pay homage to the past and strengthen economic ties across the Straits.
"As Chairman Lien has expressed his intention to visit the mainland, we
welcome and invite him to visit at any time he thinks appropriate," Jia, also
chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political
Consultative Conference, China's top political advisory body, said while meeting
the KMT delegation in the Great Hall of the People.
He added the chairmen of other political parties in Taiwan that accept the
1992 Consensus, oppose "Taiwan independence" and support the development of
cross-Straits ties, are also welcome to visit the mainland.
The high-profile move was apparently aimed at boosting Beijing's political
consultation with Taiwan's main opposition parties, including the KMT and the
People First Party (PFP).
Taiwanese media have long speculated that both Lien and PFP Chairman James
Soong have plans to visit the mainland.
On Wednesday, KMT delegation spokesman Chang Jung-kung said the KMT will push
for Lien's mainland trip, but the visit has yet to be timetabled.
Chiang Pin-kun,
vice-chairman of the Taiwan-based Chinese Kuomintang Party, bows to pay
tribute to a statue of Dr Sun Yat-sen at Sun's mausoleum in Nanjing,
Jiangsu Province March 30, 2005. Dr Sun is the pioneer of Chinese
revolution and the founding father of the republic. Chiang and his
delegation will also visit Beijing and meet senior officials from the
Communist Party of China before the end of their trip on Friday.
[newsphoto] | Beijing has refused to contact the
ruling pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), which rejects the
one-China principle that both the mainland and Taiwan belong to one and the same
China.
Jia hailed Chiang's visit as the opening of a KMT-CPC dialogue.
"(Your visit) opens party-to-party dialogue between our two parties for the
first time in more than 50 years. It has important significance. This is a major
event in cross-Straits relations," Jia told the delegation.
During the meeting, the senior CPC leader also warned that the fight against
secessionist forces and their secessionist activities remains grim and
complicated.
The intensified push for "independence" by Taiwanese secessionists forces, he
warned, risked creating persistently tense and volatile cross-Straits relations
and even threatened to bring the situation to the brink of danger.
1992 Consensus
Jia urged the resumption of cross-Straits negotiation on the basis of the
1992 Consensus.
Taiwan's opposition
Nationalist Party Vice Chairman Chiang Pin-kun and his wife Chen Mei-hui
waves before leaving Beijing airport for Taiwan Friday, April 1, 2005.
Chiang left for home after a five-day visit to the Chinese mainland -
the first of its kind since his party fled to Taiwan in 1949 after losing
a civil war. [Reuters] | The consensus refers to
an informal agreement, reached orally between Taiwan and the mainland in
November 1992, that both sides should adhere to the one-China principle.
Jia stressed that although the two sides of the Taiwan Straits are yet to be
reunified, the fact that both the mainland and Taiwan belong to one and the same
China remains unchanged.
"This is the cross-Straits status quo, which is not only recognized by us,
but is also evident in the existing stipulations and documents in Taiwan," he
said.
In an earlier meeting with the KMT delegation, State Councillor Tang Jiaxuan
pledged pragmatic measures and concrete steps to push for closer cross-Straits
economic exchanges and co-operation.
"Such exchanges are of significance to enhancing mutual understanding,
promoting mutual benefit and developing cross-Straits relations," Tang said.
To forge closer cross-Straits economic ties, he noted, some new preferential
policies and measures will be introduced.
During the meetings, Chiang agreed that cross-Straits economic and trade ties
could be helpful in easing tensions, resolving the contradictions between the
two sides, and enhancing the competitiveness of Taiwan's economy.
The KMT leader urged for a pragmatic attitude in strengthening economic and
trade exchanges and people-to-people exchanges across the Straits.
On Wednesday, the KMT group discussed a wide range of issues concerning
cross-Straits economic exchanges with officials from related mainland
departments.
Yesterday morning, the KMT delegation paid homage at the cenotaph of Sun
Yat-sen, the KMT founder and a pioneer of the Chinese Democratic Revolution, in
Beijing's Biyun (Blue Cloud) Temple.
Sun died on March 12, 1925 and his remains stayed for four years in the
temple at the foot of Xiangshan Mountains before being buried in Nanjing's Sun
Yat-sen Mausoleum on June 1, 1929.
(China Daily 04/01/2005 page1)
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