Sides 'should consider' political issues

• Source: The Global Times
• [10:24 May 27 2009]
• Comments

By Wang Anna

Hu Jintao, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, meets with visiting Kuomintang Chairman Wu Poh-hsiung in Beijing yesterday afternoon. Photo: Xinhua

Hu Jintao, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, met with visiting Kuomintang (KMT) Chairman Wu Poh-hsiung in Beijing yesterday, promising to kick-start talks on a cross-Straits economic cooperation pact and to avoid “internal struggles” in foreign affairs.

The two agreed to further implement the common prospects for peaceful cross-Straits development, agreed by the leaders of the two parties in 2005, a statement issued after their meeting said.

“Both sides held that they should avoid internal struggles in foreign affairs and work for the interests of all Chinese,” the statement said.

Taiwan's participation in the 62nd World Health Assembly in Geneva, which ends today, showed the mainland's sincerity in pushing forward the peaceful development of cross- Straits relations, Hu said at the meeting.

“It indicated Chinese on both sides of the Taiwan Straits have the ability and wisdom to properly solve issues concerning the island's participation in activities of international institutions,” he said.

Putting an end to a state of hostility and reaching a peace agreement was the objective of the common prospects for peaceful cross-Straits development, Hu said.

The mainland proposed the two sides conduct pragmatic discussion on issues concerning political relations and establishing a mechanism of mutual trust on cross-Straits military security under the circumstances that the country had not been reunified, he said.

Cross-Straits negotiations should be conducted step-by-step and at a proper pace by putting economic and simple issues first and gradually moving on to tackle political and difficult problems, he said.

“The two sides, however, should be prepared and create conditions for solving these problems,” he said.

They could start with contacts in “initial form” and accumulate experience to gradually tackle difficult issues, he said.

The mainland would also continue to focus on economic cooperation with Taiwan, Hu said.

The Chinese mainland expected that talks about an economic agreement would begin in the second half of the year, he said.

In the near term, the mainland would continue focusing on economic cooperation, and the top priority would be to jointly tackle the impact of the global downturn, he said.

“We have adopted some measures to pull through this crisis together with you [the Taiwan people], as compatriots on the two sides of the Taiwan Straits belong to one family,” he said.

“We will continue doing this if the situation requires us to.”

Wu said that in the past year, the two sides had built mutual trust and shelved disputes, sought common ground while resolving differences and enhanced cooperation for peace, common prosperity and reciprocity.

“The fruitful achievements in the development of the cross- Straits relationship should be attributed to the two sides' political mutual trust, which is based on the adherence to the 1992 consensus and opposing 'Taiwan independence,'” he said.

Wu said the peaceful development of cross-Straits ties conformed to the expectations of people on both sides and the international community.

The majority of Taiwan people have felt the positive effects of the cross-Straits exchanges and consultations and become more supportive of the peaceful development of cross-Straits relations, he said.

“It has been proven that we're heading in the right direction,” Wu said.

“We should and must go on in that direction.”

The two leaders agreed on the importance of cultural exchanges across the Taiwan Straits and agreed to hold forums to promote them.

Wu arrived in Beijing Monday for an eight-day trip to the mainland at the invitation of Hu.

“The meeting will be the most important event on this year's cross-Straits agenda,” Wang Yi, director of the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, said Monday.

Xinhua contributed to this story