PFP leader begins mainland visit
(newsphoto)
Updated: 2005-05-05 20:37

Taiwan's second opposition leader Soong begins mainland trip

James CY Soong, chairman of the People First Party (PFP) in Taiwan, began his nine-day Chinese mainland trip Thursday, two days after Lien Chan, chairman of the Kuomintang (KMT) 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 Straits and oppose secession activities of "Taiwan Independence" force in the province.

"I am here to serve as a bridge between Taiwan and the Chinese mainland for mutual trust, mutual understanding and cooperation," Soong, leader of Taiwan's second largest opposition Party, told a people who came to greet him at the airport.

Many Taiwanese had urged him to promote "three direct links" with the mainland, which refers to the direct links of 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, that is, 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 (CPC) 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 was accorded with enthusiastic welcome by Chinese mainland officials and general public the same way as KMT Chairman Lien Chan was, who returned to Taipei on Tuesday. Honored with a red carpet reception amid fresh flowers, 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 present atthe airport to meet him.

Differentiating himself from KMT Chairman Lien Chan, who called his eight-day mainland trip as a "journey of peace", Soong labeled the PFP's endeavor as a "journey of bridge."

Soong is here 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 bring him to Nanjing, the capital of the Republic of China before 1949, world-prestigious banking and commercial hub Shanghai, followed by his visit to his ancestral home in Hunan Province, and climax finale of the nine-day trip -- Beijing, where he will confer with his host Hu Jintao, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee.

"I hope in this trip we can reach more concrete consensus with the CPC," Soong said.

Analysts said that building on the ground-breaking trip by Lien,Soong's tour will help further improvement in cross-Straits relations.

Lien's trip, the first ever detente between the CPC and the KMTsince the last handshake between their leaders Mao Zedong and Chiang Kai-shek in August 1945, cemented both symbolic gestures and concrete reconciliation, including Beijing's gift of two giant pandas and offers on Taiwan fruit imports and tourism, apart from a promise of military mutual trust mechanism.

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 as the Pan-Blue which opposes "Taiwan independence", occupies more than half of the Taiwan "legislative" seats.

As a result of the latest string of cross-Straits maneuvers, the Pan-Blue alliance is gaining more popularity. Even an opinion poll by the pro-independence DPP showed that support for the itself sharply droped from 40.3 percent on April 20 to 33 percent on April 26, while support for the KMT was increasing from 30 percent to 34 percent during Lien's mainland stay.

In this backdrop, Chen Shui-bian once claimed that he has asked Soong to carry messages from Taiwan's "government" to the mainland.But Soong said he is willing to represent the will of "Taiwan people" instead. "I'm certainly neither an envoy nor a messenger,"he said before his departure for the mainland trip.

Beijing has repeatedly said it has no stereotypes on political forces in Taiwan. Only if they agree with the "1992 Consensus" and oppose "Taiwan independence", it underlined, the CPC would welcomecontact and dialogue with any of them, including the DPP.

Guo Zhenyuan, a Taiwan affairs expert at the Beijing-based Institute of International Studies, said, "Both visits by Lien and Soong reflect an irresistible trend in Taiwan for improving cross-Strait relations as well as maintaining peace and stability."

"Both visits will show positive examples for Taiwan authoritiesin dealing with the mainland," Guo said.

On Thursday, Taiwan share prices closed 2.13 percent higher. Dealers said local investors were optimistic about the improvement in cross-Straits ties, according to media reports from Taipei.

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