Leaders of the Chinese mainland's Non-Communist parties and All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce gathered in Beijing Wednesday, to lambast Chen Shui-bian for his move to cease the functioning of Taiwan's National Unification Council and Guidelines on Unification.

At the gathering, speakers gave their full support to Tuesday's statement of the Taiwan Work Office of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, reiterating their advocacy of the One-China Principle and opposition to Chen's separation schemes from the motherland under any name or in any form.

In their speeches, they respectively criticized Chen's negligence of the Taiwan people's aspiration for peace, stability and development and of creating a new crises across the Taiwan Strait for his own selfish interests. The mainland should be on guard for his pro-independence activities and be prepared to curb and oppose his conspiratorial activities, they said.

Chen is plotting to gamble with cross-strait peace and the interests of the Taiwan people, which is detrimental to the fundamental interests of the Chinese nation, said one of the speakers.

More than 100 people attended the gathering, which was presided over by Zhou Tienong, vice chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), and attended, among others, by CPPCC National Committee vice-chairpersons Zhang Huaixi, Li Meng, Zhang Meiying and Zhang Rongming.

Source: Xinhua