Mainland scholars commemorate former president's proposal on national reunification

Mainland scholars have commemorated the 12th anniversary of former Chinese President Jiang Zemin's speech on national reunification.

The eight-point proposal put forward by Jiang in 1995 has been guiding the mainland's work on the Taiwan issue, and will continue to play an important role in the future, agreed the scholars at a symposium held in Beijing on Monday.

In a speech titled "Continue to Strive for the Accomplishment of the Great Cause of Reunifying the Motherland" on Jan. 30, 1995, Jiang set forth the eight-point proposal for the resolution of the Taiwan issue.

"Practice has proven that cross-Strait relations have been developing under the outline of the proposal these years," said Xu Shiquan, vice president of the National Taiwan Research Society (NTRS).

Last year, the indirect trade volume between the mainland and Taiwan exceeded 100 billion U.S. dollars. Taiwan residents made more than 4.4 million visits to the mainland and mainlanders to Taiwan topped 200,000.

Cross-Strait cultural and personnel exchanges have made remarkable progress as well under the guidance of the proposal, said researchers Xiu Chunping and Xie Yu with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

Currently, the relations between the mainland and Taiwan are moving toward peace and stability, but the "Taiwan independence" secessionist activities are continuing as well, note the scholars.

The main threat to the cross-Strait relations is the "de jure independence" through the so-called "constitutional reform" pursued by the Taiwan authorities and Taiwan leader Chen Shui-bian, according to the scholars.

Commemorating the proposal is also to better grasp and implement the four-point guidelines on cross-Strait relations set forth by President Hu Jintao, said researcher Li Jiaquan with the NTRS.

Professor Huang Jiashu with the People's University of China said the reunification will eventually be accomplished as long as the mainland government adheres to the basic principles of "peaceful reunification" and "one country, two systems", as well as Jiang and Hu's guidelines.

Source: Xinhua