Only mainstream opinion welcome on cross-Strait relations

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-09-21 20:44

NANCHANG: The mainland's Taiwan affairs chief Wang Yi said Monday any move counter to mainstream opinion on further improvement of mainland-Taiwan relations would be unwelcome on both sides.

Wang, director of the Taiwan Work Office of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, was speaking at the seventh Symposium on Economic and Trade Cooperation between Taiwan and Jiangxi Province, which opened Monday in Jiangxi's capital city Nanchang.

"Improving and developing cross-Strait relations is the common hope of mainland and Taiwan people. Any attempt to disturb or sabotage the mainstream view will get no support," Wang said.

His comment comes a day after the mainland voiced opposition to the decision of Taiwan's Kaohsiung city to show a film about ethnic separatist Rebiya Kadeer at the city's upcoming film festival.

Kadeer has been accused of planning the July 5 riot in Urumqi city in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, in which 197 people were killed and more than 1,700 were injured.

"Some forces in Kaohsiung insisted on showing this film that distorts the facts and beatifies the ethnic separatists, which has sent the wrong signals about terrorism and violence," the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, also headed by Wang Yi, said Sunday.

Early this month the mainland expressed anger over a visit of the Dalai Lama to the island at the invitation of some members of Taiwan's Democratic Progressive Party.

But Wang Yi said Monday the support of peaceful development of the mainland-Taiwan relations has become the mainstream tendency.

"Inevitably we will encounter difficulties and obstruction while pushing forward relations. But I believe compatriots on both sides (of the Taiwan Strait) fundamentally want to improve and develop relations," he said. "The future of cross-Strait relations is in the hands of our compatriots."

He said the mainland would continue to help Taiwan in reconstruction work following Typhoon Morakot in August.

Lucrative deals

At the five-day symposium in Jiangxi, more than 1,000 businessmen from Taiwan discussed potential cooperation with local companies in businesses such as solar cells, light-emitting diode (LED) products, lithium battery, electronic products and mining.

Jiangxi has prepared investment proposals worth 380.8 billion yuan ($55.7 billion) at the symposium.

Companies from the two sides have reached 45 deals with a total value in contract of $1.42 billion so far, according to the symposium organizer.

Taiwan-based TECO Electric & Machinery Co., Ltd. is interested in the subway project of Nanchang, said its Chairman C.K. Liu at the symposium.

"We are discussing with the Nanchang government about the air conditioning system and infrastructure construction in the project," he said.

Two major Taiwan solar cell firms Helistar and Taiflex have set up factories in Jiangxi.

Taiwan businesses have invested in the mainland since the 1980s, first in the Pearl River Delta and southeastern Fujian Province and then in the Yangtze River Delta.

Inland provinces like Jiangxi could be their next target as the region has rich natural and human resources and a big market potential, said Yu Keli, director of the Institute of Taiwan Studies, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.