ARATS Official Meets Taiwan DelegationA senior Chinese official for Taiwan affairs met and exchanged views on the current cross-Straits relations with a delegation from Taiwan's Kuomintang Monday.Li Yafei, secretary-general of the Beijing-based Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS), and the delegation reached common understanding on adherence to the one- China consensus and the promotion of direct economic and other exchanges. The two sides held that the major reason behind the stalemate in the current cross-Straits relations lies in the denial of Taiwan's new leader of the one-China consensus reached between the two sides of the Taiwan Straits. In 1992, the association and Taiwan's Straits Exchanges Foundation (SEF) reached a consensus by agreeing to adhere to the one-China principle, which led to a summit between the association 's president Wang Daohan and his Taiwanese counterpart Koo Chen-fu, chairman of the SEF. The negotiations between the two organizations will be reopened and the cross-Straits relations improved and developed when the consensus is upheld, the two sides noted. It is in the best interests of people on both sides of the Straits to enhance economic cooperation and realize the exchanges of mail service, trade, and air and shipping services, known as the "three direct links", they said. The two sides also pledged enhanced cooperation in fighting against "Taiwan independence" and striving for the improvement and development of cross-Straits relations. |
| People's Daily Online --- http://www.peopledaily.com.cn/english/ |