A senior mainland official Monday urged Taiwan people to fight "Taiwan independence" activities as hard as they fought the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression.

According to Wang Zaixi, vice-minister of the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, pro-independence forces are the common enemy of people on both sides of the Taiwan Straits.

He made the call Monday afternoon at a forum held by the Beijing-based Cross-Straits Relations Research Centre and visiting New Party delegation from Taiwan.

The 30-member opposition delegation headed by party chairman Yok Mu-ming arrived in Beijing on Sunday after touring Guangzhou, Nanjing and Dalian. It started the eight-day "journey of the Chinese nation" on Wednesday to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the victory in the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression (1937-1945).

"Escalating secessionist activities pose the biggest and most destructive threat to peace and stability in the Taiwan Straits," Wang said.

"Only by opposing and curbing Taiwan's secession from China can we safeguard cross-Straits peace and stability."

He urged people across the Straits to launch an all-out fight against secessionist forces.

Members of the Taiwan delegation and 24 mainland researchers on cross-Straits studies attended the forum.

Wang said the eight-year war of resistance has taught the Chinese people a good lesson that "only a rich and powerful China can avoid being bullied by others."

He went on to emphasize that China has to achieve reunification in order to become powerful.

"Only a reunited China can really become a powerful country in the world," Wang told the forum.

Yok said his party will work jointly with the entire Chinese people to oppose "Taiwan independence" and work for peaceful reunification across the Straits.

Participants to the event agreed that the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) administration had been promoting "independence" for the island since taking power in May 2000.

The Taiwan authorities, headed by Chen Shui-bian, has been pushing for "independence" through a "constitutional re-engineering project." Chen planned to write a new "constitution" for the island in 2006 and enact the document in 2008, a move widely considered tantamount to moving the island towards a declaration of formal "independence."

Wang Chien-shien, a member of the New Party delegation, said the DPP administration was also promoting creeping pro-independence moves through a "de-Sinofication" policy in the culture, history and education sectors.

Monday morning, Yok and his entourage visited Lugouqiao (the Marco Polo Bridge) and the Memorial Hall of the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression (1937-1945) near the bridge in southwestern Beijing.

The bridge, has become famous for the "July 7 Incident," which marked Japan's all-out assault on China in 1937.

At the memorial hall, Yok led the delegation in placing a wreath in memory of those who lost their lives in the war of resistance, observing silence and making three bows.

Yok urged all Chinese compatriots to take history as a mirror, be united and make concerted efforts to create a glorious future for the Chinese nation.

Source: China Daily