KMT official plans mainland goodwill trip
28/3/2005 7:37
KMT official plans mainland goodwill trip P.K. Chiang, vice chairman of
Taiwan's Kuomintang party, said in Taipei yesterday that he will lead a
34-member delegation to visit the Chinese mainland to "recall the past" and do
some business.
At a news conference in the provincial capital of Taiwan,
Chiang said he has visited the mainland twice, but his coming trip will be more
important because the delegation will visit the tombs of "KMT martyrs" in
Nanjing and Guangzhou and a monument honoring Dr Sun Yat-sen, the founder of the
Kuomintang and pioneer of the "Chinese democratic revolution."
This year is
the 80th anniversary of the death of Dr Sun Yat-sen, Chiang said.
The five
decades of division across the Taiwan Strait were the result of the civil war
between the KMT and the Communist Party of China in the late 1940s, Chiang
acknowledged.
Cross-strait tensions in the past five years have "affected the
economy of Taiwan," Chiang said, adding his belief that friction between the two
sides should not continue and that there must be a way for
reconciliation.
"What the people of Taiwan need is a peaceful and happy life,
economic prosperity and more job opportunities, but it is impossible for Taiwan
to regain its past prosperity under the current tensions," Chiang said.
The
mainland's booming economy has affected the East Asian region and the entire
world, he said. Given the circumstances, he added, it is "the common aspiration
of the Taiwan people" to revive the economy of Taiwan as quickly as possible
through cross-strait exchanges.
Chiang hoped his upcoming visit would help
simplify procedures for cargo transport and address other issues of concern for
Taiwan business people.
Direct links involving trade, mail, air and shipping
services across the Taiwan Strait would help Taiwan's economy and are mutually
beneficial for the two sides, he said.
KMT Chairman Lien Chan, who also
addressed the news conference, reproached "some people in Taiwan" for their
attempts to intensify the conflict across the Taiwan Strait. These actions "may
provoke a war," he said.
As the political situation is abnormal in Taiwan,
the KMT wants to provide Taiwan people with one more prospect and one more
option, Lien said.
Lien called for "wisdom" and even greater efforts to help
the people of Taiwan resolve the fundamental problems that they
face.
Xinhua
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