James Soong, chairman of the People First Party, arrives with his wife Viola Chen at Xi’an airport in northwest China yesterday to begin his nine-day mainland trip, two days after Lien Chan, chairman of the Chinese Kuomintang Party, wrapped up his historic “journey of peace.” (Photo: Xinhua)

The chairman of the People First Party in Taiwan, James Soong, began his nine-day mainland trip yesterday, two days after Lien Chan, chairman of the Chinese Kuomintang Party, wrapped up his historic "journey of peace."
The successive visits by the two most powerful opposition parties from Taiwan signify their efforts to promote peace and dialogue across the Taiwan Strait and oppose secession activities of "Taiwan independence" in the island.
"I am here to serve as a bridge between Taiwan and the Chinese mainland for mutual trust, mutual understanding and cooperation," Soong said at the airport in Xi'an.
Many taiwanese had urged him to promote "three direct links" with the mainland, which refer to postal services, flight and navigation, and business.
Soong said he told them that "in addition to these three links, I'm going to work for the fourth direct link - the link of our souls."
"We are of one family and should create our future," Soong told the cheering crowds.
"The PFP will, as always, never sway on its stance of opposing 'Taiwan independence,' and adhere to the 1992 Consensus."
The consensus refers to agreements reached by the Communist Party of China and Taiwan authorities in 1992 that the Taiwan island and the Chinese mainland are of one China. But it is denied by the present Taiwan leader Chen Shui-bian.
Soong said it should be the common aspiration of all Chinese to seek "mutual acquaintance, mutual understanding and mutual reconciliation" and to reach "common consensus, harmonious living and common prosperity."
To materialize these aspirations, he called on people across the Taiwan Strait to keep to three fundamental stances - opposition to "Taiwan independence," adherence to the 1992 Consensus and upholding peace.
Soong was accorded an enthusiastic welcome by mainland officials and the general public, in the same way as Lien, who returned to Taipei on Tuesday.
Soong was honored with a red-carpet reception amid fresh flowers and Chen Yunlin, director of the Taiwan Work Office of the CPC Central Committee, local officials from Shaanxi Province and Xi'an City, as well as Taiwan business people working and living on the mainland were at the airport to meet him.
Soong is on the mainland to pay homage to the mausoleum of Huangdi, who was regarded as the common ancestor of all Chinese, near Xi'an. The trip will also take him to Nanjing, the capital of the Republic of China before 1949, and Shanghai.
He is expected to pay homage to Dr Sun Yat-sen, founding father of the Chinese Kuomintang, at Sun's mausoleum in Nanjing.
He will visit his ancestral home in Hunan Province and wind up the nine-day trip in Beijing, where he will confer with his host Hu Jintao, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee.
Before leaving Taipei, Soong said at Taipei's Taoyuan Airport that he, with a high degree of sincerity, hopes to build a bridge of mutual trust, cooperation and communication.
"The widest gap between the two sides across the Taiwan Strait is not geographical but psychological," Soong said.
"I hope in this trip we can reach more concrete consensus with the CPC."
As an indigenous political force founded in March 2000, the PFP has shaped a KMT-PFP alliance with Lien running for the 2004 "presidential election."
The alliance, nicknamed the Pan-Blue, opposes "Taiwan independence," and occupies more than half the Taiwan "legislative" seats.
As a result of the latest string of cross-strait maneuvers, the Pan-Blue alliance is gaining more popularity.
South china Airlines selected stewardesses from Hunan to serve Soong on his flight to the mainland.
His hometown has prepared delicious local specialties such as bacon, rice wine and tea for him.
Villagers have also paved a cement road leading to the tomb of Soong's late father.