Visiting?Kuomintang (KMT)?Chairman Lien Chan said in
Shanghai Sunday that Taiwan and the mainland can jointly create
peace, promote development and enjoy prosperity.
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In a meeting with Chen Liangyu, a member of the Political Bureau of
the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and secretary
of the CPC Shanghai municipal committee, Lien said, "The past
cannot be changed. What can be changed is the future. To face up to
the current days and jointly create the future is the most
worthwhile direction that we strive for," he said.
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Lien said relations across the Taiwan Straits are an issue that the
entire region or even the world as a whole attaches great
importance to.
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The KMT has been devoting itself to pushing forward the
establishment of "mutually beneficial and helpful, coexistent and
win-win" relations across the Straits, he said.
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Lien recalled the "1992 Consensus" reached between the two sides of
the Straits and previous cross-Straits talks.
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Chen Liangyu described Lien's visit as a "great event" in the
development of cross-Straits relations, saying that Lien's meeting
with Hu Jintao, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee,
bears great historic and realistic significance.
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Chen expressed the belief that the visit by Lien and the KMT
delegation will definitely promote exchanges and cooperation
between Shanghai and Taiwan, "which is conducive to the peaceful
and stable development of cross-Straits relations."
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Trade and economic cooperation and people-to-people exchanges
between Shanghai and Taiwan have been active since the 1980s, and a
growing number of Taiwan people have come to Shanghai to make
investment, do business, study and buy real estate, making the
metropolis the biggest residence of Taiwan people in the
mainland.
(Xinhua News Agency May 2, 2005)