Cross-Straits official lauds reunification efforts

Taiwan Affairs Office chief notes major progress in relationship

A Chinese mainland official on Tuesday expressed determination to resolve the Taiwan question and realize national reunification.

Wang Yi, head of the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, made the comment in an interview with Xinhua on Tuesday.

Wang said solving the Taiwan question and realizing the reunification of the two sides of the Taiwan Straits is a major historic mission of the Communist Party of China. The CPC has made unremitting efforts and positive and important progress in this regard over the past six decades.

"We have the firm determination, full confidence and patience needed to resolve the Taiwan question," he said.

"Our determination rests with the complete unification of the nation."

He said that the core of solving the Taiwan question is to realize national reunification. This, Wang said, has a great bearing on national sovereignty and territorial integrity, as well as the prospects and destiny of the Chinese nation.

"We are duty-bound to shoulder and fulfill this historic responsibility, and should be firm to oppose and resist acts of 'Taiwan independence' in all their forms," Wang said. "We will unswervingly overcome any difficulties and challenges."

"Our confidence derives from the rising strength of the mainland and development of cross-Straits relations," Wang said.

He added that the mainland's comprehensive strength and rising international status are sure to have a deep impact on and determine the development direction of cross-Straits relations.

The mainland's principles and policies toward Taiwan, which have been tested through practice, have become more and more in agreement with the facts of the island and demands of its people, Wang said.

"These principles and policies have gained more understanding and recognition from Taiwan society, and all these will help the two sides to march forward from exchanges to harmony, and from harmony to reunification," said Wang, who is also director of the Taiwan Work Office of the Communist Party of China Central Committee.

"Our patience is based on the objective analysis of Taiwan-related issues," said Wang. He added that Taiwan-related issues are complicated as they involve politics, economy, law, international relations and national sentiments.

The mainland understands that the divergence and misunderstanding between the two sides has been tough because of years of isolation, said Wang, adding that patience should be maintained to solve related issues with persistence and sincerity.

Wang regarded the past four years, 2008 to 2012, after the 17th CPC National Congress held in 2007, as the most fruitful period for the development of cross-Straits relations.

The mainland and Taiwan restored regular talks in June 2008, when Chen Yunlin, president of the mainland-based Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits, met with Chiang Pin-kung, then the chairman of the Taiwan-based Straits Exchange Foundation, for the first time after nine years of no negotiations.

Chen and Chiang had held eight rounds of talks since then and witnessed the signing of 18 cross-Straits pacts, including the landmark Cross-Straits Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement signed in 2010.

"These pacts have settled a large number of practical problems emerging in the exchanges of the two sides and have promoted the institutionalization and standardization of cross-Straits exchanges," Wang said.

The two sides have also established political mutual trust based on the common ground of the 1992 Consensus and opposing "Taiwan independence", which leads the development of cross-Straits relations in the correct direction, Wang said.

He said the realization of the three direct links of post, trade and transport at the end of 2008 has significantly facilitated personal exchanges and trade between the two sides of the Taiwan Straits.

Wang predicted that the number of people commuting across the Straits will top 8 million this year, up from 7.1 million in 2011.

Xinhua