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Wan LixinOpinion deputy editor of Shanghai Daily
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Cross-Strait ties ‘Must Be Protected’
Print Edition
THE mainland’s Taiwan affairs chief yesterday called for efforts to avoid U-turns and self-inflicted setbacks to ties across the Taiwan Strait.
“Both sides should be determined to protect cross-Strait relations from U-turns and setbacks,” Zhang Zhijun said when meeting Taiwan’s mainland affairs chief Andrew Hsia in Kinmen County, Taiwan.
Zhang, director of the State Council Taiwan Affairs Office, arrived in Kinmen, which is just 2 kilometers from the mainland city of Xiamen, yesterday for a two-day visit.
Cross-Strait ties are at a crucial point and both sides should consider earnestly their future development, Zhang said.
He called for efforts to deepen cooperation and exchanges and to build a community of shared destiny.
Yesterday’s meeting was the third formal meeting between the chiefs of cross-Strait affairs from the mainland and Taiwan.
During the meeting, the mainland reiterated it welcomes Taiwan to join the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. The two sides will keep in touch to seek a way for the island to join under a proper name.
The sides also agreed to facilitate the signing of a water supply contract between Fujian Province and Kinmen and to start related construction at an early date.
They also agreed to push forward consultations and reach consensus on the agreement of commodity trade, and hold the 11th talks between heads of the mainland-based Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS) and Taiwan’s Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) at an early date.
They said they will conclude consultations on allowing the ARATS and SEF to set up offices on each other’s side “as early as possible.”
Also, the sides agreed to promote negotiations on allowing mainland air travelers to transfer in Taiwan and strive to reach an agreement by the middle of the year.
The agreement also included strengthening economic and fishery cooperation, exchanges among the young people, protecting the rights of students studying on each other’s side, and cooperating on repatriating wanted fugitives.
“It took only half an hour to travel here from Xiamen, but exchanges between the two cities suffered for about half a century because of civil war,” Zhang said.
“The furthest distance is not separation by vast oceans, but when your compatriots are within reach, yet you cannot see each other,” he said.
The former battlefield is now the frontline of exchanges, cooperation and mutual development, he said.
Since 2008, the two sides have built an environment for the peaceful development of cross-Strait ties on the foundations of the 1992 consensus and opposition to “Taiwan independence,” Zhang said.
Relations between the mainland and Taiwan stalled when Kuomintang (KMT) forces, led by Chiang Kai-shek, fled to the island in 1949 after a civil war.
Ties have improved since KMT chairman Ma Ying-jeou won Taiwan’s leadership election in 2008.
Cross-strait affairs chiefs were involved in mutual visits last year and set up a regular communication mechanism amid warming ties.
In June last year, Zhang became the first Taiwan affairs chief from the mainland to visit the island in 65 years.
On this trip, Zhang plans to talk to people from all walks of life to hear their opinions on cross-Strait exchanges.
During yesterday’s meeting, Taiwan’s mainland affairs chief Hsia said the regular communication mechanism between the two departments, which has boosted cooperation and reduced misjudgments, should be maintained and expanded.
Neither sides wants to engage in war anymore, he said.
The peace and prosperity of the past seven years has proved that the two sides have “turned swords into ploughs,” he said.
The two sides should promote steady development of cross-Strait relations on the basis of the 1992 consensus to benefit the people, he said.
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