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China Voice: Pragmatic cooperation to boost cross-Strait ties

Xinhua, May 2, 2015 Adjust font size:

Communication across the Taiwan Strait has been strengthened since 2005, and will improve after Taiwan's Kuomintang (KMT) party chairman's visit to the mainland.

KMT Chairman Eric Chu arrived in Shanghai on Saturday, and on Sunday, he will lead a delegation to the 10th Cross-Strait Economic, Trade and Culture Forum.

Initiated in 2006, the forum will focus on small and medium-sized companies, youth and ordinary people.

After the forum, Chu will visit Beijing to meet Xi Jinping, General Secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) on CPC-KMT exchanges and relations across the Taiwan Strait.

When the KMT forces led by Chiang Kai-shek fled to Taiwan in 1949 after defeat in a civil war, relations between the mainland and Taiwan stalled.

In 2005, Hu Jintao, then general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, met with then KMT chairman Lien Chan in Beijing, the first time in six decades top leaders of the parties had met.

After that meeting, a communique described the two parties' "shared vision for the peaceful development of cross-Strait relation".

Since then KMT chairman Ma Ying-jeou won the island's leadership election in 2008, cross-Strait communication has picked up remarkably, with direct air, sea and postal services and reduced tariffs.

For the last ten years, relations have achieved breakthroughs by adhering to the common political commitments of the 1992 consensus and opposing "Taiwan independence."

With pragmatic attitude and concrete measures, people from all walks of life have benefited from peaceful development of cross-Strait relations.

Figures provided by the mainland showed that in 2014, trade between the two sides was 198 billion U.S. dollars, up 0.6 percent year on year, with imports from Taiwan worth more than 152 billion U.S. dollars. The figure was 169 billion U.S. dollars for 2012.

Standing at a new historical juncture, it is time for the CPC and KMT to work together and build momentum.

It should be remembered by both sides to keep common political commitments of upholding the 1992 Consensus and opposing to "Taiwan independence."

With pooled efforts, both sides will strive for new achivements and promote peace and prosperity across the Taiwan Strait. Endi