Song Tao, head of both the Taiwan Work Office of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, met with Ma Ying-jeou, former Taiwan president and the ex-chairman of the Chinese Kuomintang party, in Shenzhen.
Ma, who is leading a youth delegation to visit China, arrived in Shenzhen on Monday. He will stay in China for 11 days and is expected next week to have his second meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, at a time of simmering tensions across the Taiwan Strait.
Song said compatriots on both sides of the Taiwan Strait are all Chinese, and they should uphold the 1992 Consensus and firmly oppose “Taiwan independence” separatist activities and external interference.
He called on people from across the Strait to actively promote exchanges and cooperation in various fields, jointly promote the Chinese culture, enhance kinship and well-being of the compatriots on both sides of the Strait, boost peaceful and integrated development of cross-Strait relations and strive for national reunification and rejuvenation.
Ma thanked Xi for his greetings. Saying that compatriots on the two sides of the Strait are closely bound by blood, he called for boosting cross-Strait exchanges and cooperation, particularly among young people, on the political foundation of upholding the 1992 Consensus and opposing “Taiwan independence.”
(Staff reporter and Xinhua)
Tags: Beijing official meets Taiwan president Yingjeou Guangdong
