New Party chairman starts mainland visit
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2005-07-06 17:17

Yok Mu-ming, chairman of the New Party in Taiwan, arrived in Guangzhou at 14:40 Wednesday to begin an eight-day mainland visit.

Yok said the New Party has followed the footsteps of Chinese Kuomintang Chairman Lien Chan and People First Party leader James Soong to visit the mainland to commemorate the 60th anniversary of China's victory over the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression.

Yok Yu-ming, chairman of the New Party in Taiwan, answers questions from reporters upon his arrival at the airport in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province July 6, 2005. Guangzhou is his first stop of this mainland visit. [newsphoto]

"Memories of the past occur to us at this historic moment," he said upon arrival at the Baiyun Airport in Guangzhou. "These memories remind us that we must be united."

Yok said the New Party has named the mainland tour a "journey of the Chinese nation", meaning they stand for the Chinese nation and will pursue the prosperity of the Chinese nation.

The 30-member delegation have chosen Guangzhou as the first step of their mainland tour.

"We'll pay tribute to the Huanghuagang 72 Martyrs' Tombs and look back on the righteousness and heroism of that generation of Chinese youth," said Yok. "We hope the young people of today will not forget the country's plight of the past and its hopes of the future."

Yok Yu-ming, chairman of the New Party in Taiwan, makes a stopover in Hong Kong en route to the mainland for the "trip of the Chinese nation" July 6, 2005. [Xinhua]

The Huanghuagang Tombs was an important place of historic interest in Guangzhou, where 72 people killed in an abortive uprising to overthrow the imperial Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) were honored.

The mainland tour, from July 6 to 13, will also take Yok and his delegation to Nanjing, Dalian and Beijing.

In Nanjing, the group will pay tribute to the Mausoleum of Dr. Sun Yat-sen, forerunner of China's democratic revolution, and go to offer condolences at the Memorial Hall of the Victims in the Nanjing Massacre, an atrocity conducted by Japanese invading troops during World War II.

In Beijing, the delegation will visit the Memorial Hall of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, take part in activities in commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the victoryover the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, and hold discussions with mainland scholars in a symposium.

Prior to the delegation's departure from the Taipei airport Wednesday morning, Yok told Xinhua in a telephone interview that the New Party is making the mainland trip to play its role in Taiwan's Pan-Blue Alliance to improve relations across the Taiwan Straits.

He said it is the opportune time for the New Party delegation to tour the mainland to commemorate the Lugou Bridge (also known as the Macro Polo Bridge) Incident in north China on July 7, 1937,which marked the launching of China's war of resistence against the Japanese aggressors.

"It's also a historic moment to remind Chinese descendents bothat home and overseas to draw a lesson from history and shoulder the historic mission of maintaining national unity and seeking peaceful reunification of the motherland," Yok told Xinhua.

Yok, 65, was elected chairman of the New Party in June 2003.

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