BEIJING, April 11 – China’s president Xi Jinping met Taiwan’s former president Ma Ying-jeou in Beijing on Wednesday.
Compatriots from both sides of the Taiwan Strait belong to the same Chinese nation, Xi said.
The over-5,000-year history of the Chinese nation saw successive generations of ancestors move and settle down in Taiwan and people from across the Strait fight side by side to recover the island from foreign invaders, he said.
Ma, president from 2008 to 2016, last year became the first former Taiwanese leader to visit China, and is now on his second trip to the country.
Since the defeated Republic of China government fled to Taiwan in 1949 after losing a civil war to Mao Zedong’s communists, no serving Taiwanese leader has visited China.
People on both sides of the Taiwan Strait are all Chinese, Xi said.
“There are no knots that cannot be untied, no issues that cannot be discussed, and no force that can separate us,” he said.
The distance of the Strait cannot sever the bond of kinship between compatriots from across the Strait, Xi added.
He said that the difference in systems does not alter the reality that both sides of the Strait belong to one China, and external interference cannot hold back the historical trend of national reunification.
Calling youth “the hope of the country and the future of the nation,” Xi encouraged young people from both sides of the Strait to aspire to become more proud, confident, and assured in their identity as Chinese people, work together for the long-term prosperity of the Chinese nation, and continue to create new glory of the nation.
Compatriots on both sides of the Strait should resolutely oppose separatist activities aimed at “Taiwan independence” and foreign interference, Xi said, calling for jointly pursuing the bright future of peaceful reunification.
He underlined the crucial importance of upholding the 1992 Consensus, which embodies the one-China principle, and having the common understanding that both sides of the Strait belong to one country and one nation.
Xi also stressed the need to work together for the long-term well-being of the Chinese nation.
Describing this goal as grand yet simple, Xi said it is to enable compatriots on both sides of the Strait to realize their aspirations for a good life, ensure a better life for all Chinese people, including Taiwan compatriots, and jointly realize the Chinese Dream of national rejuvenation.
“We always bear in mind the well-being of Taiwan compatriots,” he said, noting that the mainland has made solid efforts to ensure that Taiwan compatriots enjoy more interests, improve their well-being and have a better future.
Xi highligted the effort to foster a strong sense of community for the Chinese nation, stressing that compatriots across the Strait have always been members of one family who are supposed to interact frequently and therefore develop closer relationship. He vowed more robust measures to promote cross-Strait exchanges, interaction and integration.
He expressed grief over the loss of lives in the 7.3-magnitude earthquake that jolted waters off the coast of Hualien on April 3, and extended his sympathies to those affected by the disaster.common political foundation for the peaceful development of cross-Strait relations.
