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No improvement in DPP's China policy: Chinese official

ROC Central News Agency

2013/08/19 23:26:56

Beijing, Aug. 19 (CNA) While Taiwan's main opposition Democratic Progressive Party's recent efforts to carry out exchanges with the Communist Party of China are worthy of encouragement, 'no positive improvement can be seen' in the transformation of the party's cross-strait policies, a top Chinese official in charge of Taiwan affairs said Monday.

Sun Yafu, deputy director of the Taiwan Affairs Office of China's State Council, made the comments on the sidelines of a seminar on cross-strait relations held in Shenyang, northern China.

Sun also spoke about the possibility of a meeting between Taiwan's President Ma Ying-jeou and Chinese President Xi Jinping. Sun said that holding a meeting between the leaders on the two sides is a good thing but both sides have to work hard to create conditions for it to come true.

Cheng Siwei, former vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress and a scholar specializing in Taiwan affairs, said that China will continue to promote more political dialogue between civilians on the two sides to boost mutual understanding and trust.

It will also create more platforms and mechanisms for discussions of a wider range of political issues and attract more DPP members to participate, in order to obtain more substantive results.

Chiu Tai-san, head of the financial and economic law department at Asia University and a DPP member familiar with Chinese affairs, said that maintaining cross-strait peace is a consensus among political parties in Taiwan.

However, since Taiwan is a diverse and democratic society, it is normal to have different and opposing views on the development of cross-strait relations, he said, adding the key is how to settle the differences.

Chiu said that Taiwan and China should shift their cross-strait policy from that of mutual non-recognition of sovereignty to mutual recognition of sovereignty.

In fact, the signing of 19 agreements related to customs cooperation, bilateral judicial assistance and economic and trade exchanges between the two sides is tantamount to mutual recognition of sovereignty across the strait.

President Ma recently expressed hopes of attending the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in his capacity as the head of an economic entity.

In response, Sun said that the mainland is aware of Taiwan's long-term hope but it requires arrangements by APEC based on conventional practices.

(By Chiu Kuo-chiang and Y.L. Kao)
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