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Cross-Straits talks continue progress

By Xie Yu and Wu Jiao (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-05-26 07:47

Wu Poh-hsiung (2nd R, Back), Kuomintang (KMT) Chairman, poses with performers of Beijing opera while visiting the Huguang Guildhall in Beijing, capital of China, on May 25, 2009. A KMT delegation headed by Wu arrived in Beijing on Monday for an visit on the mainland.[Xinhua]

The meeting between Hu and Wu will be their second coming-together as heads of CPC and with KMT as Taiwan's ruling party. They first met last May when Kuomintang won the election.

During the last meeting, both sides called for an early resumption in exchanges and talks through the semi-official mainland-based Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS) and Taiwan-based Strait Exchange Foundation (SEF), which ceased 10 years ago.

Three rounds of ARATS-SEF talks led to direct shipping, flights, postal service, two-way investment and travel via nine agreements and one consensus.

Taiwan media said Wu's visit may help bring about a regularized meeting between the heads of the two parties.

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According to Taiwan media, if Ma Ying-jeou, Taiwan's current "president" takes over the KMT chairmanship in July, it may usher in the first meeting between him and CPC leader Hu Jintao.

Wu Nengyuan, director of the Fujian-based Institute of Taiwan Studies said the KMT is certain a warmer cross-Straits relationship, especially with closer economic ties, is important to the party and the public.

The cross-Straits relationship has improved greatly in the past year. Problems can only be solved through communication, while confrontation makes things worse, the expert said.

Wu Poh-hsiung said his visit "will be a chance to review cross-Straits interactions in the past year and exchange ideas frankly and in a friendly way".

Wu will head to the southwestern Chongqing Municipality and visit Hangzhou city in the Zhejiang Province and Nanjing in Jiangsu Province. He will also attend activities to commemorate Dr. Sun Yat-sen, a founder of the Kuomintang, in Nanjing on June 1.

In Taiwan, Ma Ying-jeou urged progress in the signing of an economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) with the mainland to cut taxes on petrochemical, automobile, textile and machinery exports to mainland.

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