Beijing: Hu-Chen meeting should be held on 'own soil'
(chinadaily.com.cn/Xinhua)
Updated: 2005-06-29 13:11

A Chinese central government spokesman said on Wednesday that any possible meeting between President Hu Jintao and Taiwan leader Chen Shui-bian should be held on "our own soil."

Li Weiyi, spokesman of the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, said in Beijing June 29 that any meeting between President Hu Jintao and Taiwan leader Chen Shui-bian should be held on "our own soil."

"The Taiwan issue is an internal issue of the Chinese people, so any such meeting should only occur on our own soil," said Li Weiyi, spokesman of the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, at a press conference when asked to comment on Chen's remarks that he would like to meet with Hu in the United States.

Li reiterated Beijing's clear-cut and consistent position in relation to the dialogue issue with Taiwanese authorities.

"As long as the one-China principle and the common understanding reached by the two parties in 1992 are recognized, whoever the person and whichever the party is, regardless of what they have said or done before, we are willing to discuss with them the issues in relation to the development of cross-Strait relation," Li said.

New Party delegation

The New Party in Taiwan will send a delegation to visit the mainland from July 6 to 13, Li said at the press conference.

"This year is the 60th anniversary of the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression. The New Party will organize a delegation to visit the mainland from July 6 to 13 to mark the occasion," said Li.

The delegation will visit the cities of Guangzhou, Nanjing, Dalian and Beijing. In Guangzhou, the delegation will pay tribute to the Huanghuagang 72 Martyrs' Tombs, where 72 people killed in an abortive uprising to overthrow the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) were honored.

In Nanjing, the delegation will pay tribute to the Mausoleum of Dr. Sun Yat-sen, forerunner of China's democratic revolution, and visit the Memorial Hall of the Victims in the Nanjing Massacre conducted by Japanese invading troops in World War II. In Beijing, the delegation will visit the Memorial Hall of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and have discussions with mainland scholars in a symposium. 

But he stopped short to say whether the delegation will have a chance to meet President Hu Jintao, also general secretary of the central committee of the Communist Party of China.

Lift ban on mainland reporters 

Li Weiyi urged Taiwan authorities to lift a ban on the normal journalistic operations of reporters of Xinhua News Agency and People's Daily, two leading news organizations on the mainland.

The Taiwan authorities suspended the two news organizations' right to send correspondents to Taiwan to cover local news in late March, with no justifiable reasons. Such practice has come under criticism from media organizations on both sides of the Taiwan Straits, some of which even called it an action of "turning back the clock in cross-Straits exchanges."

Labor service cooperation

At the press conference, Tang Wei, deputy director of the Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Department of the Ministry of Commerce, suggested that fishery groups across the Taiwan Straits hold talks on improving and regulating fishery labor service cooperation.

"Thanks to the efforts of various sides, the time has been generally ripe for resuming cross-Straits fishery labor service cooperation," he said.

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