Taiwan block of KMT officials 'unpopular'

In response to the Taiwan ruling party's rejection of a request by high-ranking Kuomintang party representatives to attend a nongovernmental forum on the mainland, a Chinese mainland official characterized the move as "unpopular with the people".

An Fengshan, spokesman for the State Council's Taiwan Affairs Office, made the remark at a regular news conference on Wednesday.

According to media reports, the island's travel department turned down a request by KMT Vice-Chairman Tseng Yung-chuan, together with Lin Join-sane, former chairman of Taiwan-based Straits Exchange Foundation and a former KMT leader, to go to the mainland for the Straits Forum, an annual nonpolitical platform designed to enhance people-to-people interaction, economic exchanges and cultural integration. The forum has been held for 10 years in Fujian province. This year's weeklong event is set for June.

The move shows the Democratic Progressive Party's desire to take control of cross-Straits relations by prohibiting nongovernmental communications, said Liu Xiangping, a professor of Taiwan studies at Nanjing University in Jiangsu province.

"However, in the era of globalization, it is unrealistic to suppress the willingness to improve communication. The more it is suppressed, the more the communication will rebound in the future."

He added that the island's administration is willing to harm itself to destroy cross-Straits relations.

"Taiwan has no other option but to use empty phrases," he said.

According to An, the Taiwan affairs spokesman, the KMT's vice-chairman, Hau Lung-pin, will take Tseng's place in leading the delegation to the forum.

"It is a common hope for people across the Straits that understanding and affinity can be improved. The Democratic Progressive Party has hindered people-to-people communication for political reasons, a stance that is unpopular with the people," An said.

In February, the mainland took steps to benefit Taiwan residents who want to live on the mainland. It gave Taiwan residents access to more professional qualification tests on the mainland, An said - in the banking industry and entry and exit quarantine field, for example.

Zhu Songling, a professor specializing in Taiwan studies at Beijing Union University, said the Taiwan administration is increasingly swimming against the tide of history.

Since Tsai Ing-wen assumed office two years ago, her administration has continued to talk about maintaining the status quo regarding cross-Straits relations, yet it has failed to recognized the 1992 Consensus, which embodies the one-China principle. That, in turn, harms cross-Straits relations, damages the common political foundation and peaceful development, and results in losses for people, Zhu said.