The first ever Kuomintang (KMT) delegation from Taiwan in March has toured the mainland since 1949 breaks ice for cross-straits relations. The historic journey has turned out to be, as cited by KMT Vice Chairman Chiang Pin-kung and the delegation head, an "icebreaking trip."
Chiang and his delegation, who have traveled to Guangzhou and Nanjing in south and east China following their arrival March 28 and in Beijing on their last leg, were greeted by a warm, high-level welcome with extensive media coverage throughout their journey.
"Your visit has inaugurated the first herald of a dialogue between your party and our party," Chen Yunlin, director of the CPC Central Committee's Taiwan Work Office, told Chiang at their meeting March 30. The KMT, once China's powerful ruling party from late 1920s to 1940s, left the mainland for the island province of Taiwan in 1949 at the end of a civil war against the Chinese People's Liberation Army led by CPC. "What the people now want is precisely to live and work in peace and contentment, and they do not want to see tension across the Taiwan Straits," Chiang said upon the delegation's arrival in Beijing Wednesday afternoon. "Through cross-Strait economic and trade exchanges, the tension in the region can be eased and the crisis dissolved or mitigated, "he added.
In meeting wth the delegation March 42, Jia Qinglin, a member of the CPC's top decision-making body, the nine-person Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, called on all Chinese across the Taiwan straits to work together to "effectively check 'Taiwan independence' activities and ensure a peaceful and steady development of cross-Straits relations." Jia extended invitation to KMT Chairman Lien Chan to visit the mainland at appropriate time.
Jia also said that the door for dialogue and talks remains open not only to the KMT, but also to other political parties in Taiwan that endorse the one-China principle. (Source: People's Daily, Apr. 1, 2005).