Lien Chan, chairman of Taiwan’s Kuomintang party, will visit the mainland cities of Nanjing, Beijing, Xi’an and Shanghai from April 26 to May 3, officials said yesterday.
Lien will lead a KMT delegation at the invitation of Hu Jintao, general secretary of the Communist Party of China’s Central Committee, Xinhua news agency said.
On Monday, Chen Yunlin, director of the Taiwan Work Office of the CPC Central Committee, held talks in Beijing with Lin Feng-cheng, secretary-general of the KMT party, to finalize the details of Lien’s trip, Xinhua reported.
Lien said yesterday in Taipei that his planned meeting with Hu next week will help bring peace across the Taiwan Strait, Reuters reported.
Lien is set to embark on what he called a “journey of peace,” becoming the first KMT chairman to set foot on mainland soil in more than half a century.
“Fifty-six years is not a short period of time...so it carries significant meaning,” Lien said.
Lien is scheduled to meet Jia Qinglin, chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference on April 28, and Hu on April 29 in Beijing.
On April 30, he will travel to his birthplace of Xi’an, where he will visit his elementary school and his grandmother’s tomb.
Lien will meet Taiwan businesspeople in Shanghai on May 2 before returning home the following day.