Taiwan affairs chief stresses importance of path of peace
Print Edition
THE Chinese mainland’s Taiwan affairs chief Zhang Zhijun yesterday called on both sides across the Taiwan Strait to continue to develop peaceful ties, maintain peace and stability and oppose any secessionist forces as he concluded a two-day visit to Kinmen in Taiwan.
“Don’t wait until the streetlamps go out to sense their existence, and don’t wait until peace has been lost to realize its value,” said Zhang, stressing that the cross-Strait peaceful development is hard-won and should be valued.
Zhang visited Kinmen’s Tianpu Reservoir, the destination for a planned 16.9 kilometer offshore water supply pipeline from the Jinjiang River in southeast China’s Fujian Province.
Kinmen plans to take 15,000 tons of water a year initially, which could increase to 34,000 tons later, in order to ease its water shortage.
The project was one of the major issues discussed during Saturday’s meeting between Zhang and Taiwan’s mainland affairs chief Andrew Hsia. The two sides agreed to facilitate the signing of a water supply contract between Fujian and Kinmen and the early start of related construction.
At the reservoir, Zhang expressed his hope that the project could be completed on schedule to ensure people in Kinmen can drink the mainland water as soon as possible.
“Don’t politicize issues concerning people’s livelihoods,” Zhang said.
“Compatriots from both sides of the Taiwan Strait have longed for a stable, peaceful and happy life,” Zhang said, adding that both mainland and Taiwan authorities should attach great importance to people’s livelihoods and strive to realize their aspirations.
During yesterday’s visit, Zhang also went to a brewery, a sugar company and a blade factory, and spoke to various people.
Zhang said that the two sides had been walking along the path of peaceful development for seven years and had fully enjoyed the dividends brought about by that approach.
“Although there will remain twists and turns in the future, past experience and future prospects will increase our faith and willpower to continue along this path,” he said.
On Saturday, officials from both sides also discussed controlling the illegal excavation of sand from the ocean floor, opening outlying Taiwan islets to more mainland-based tourism and letting mainland tourists make transit stops in Taiwan.
“The development of relations between Taiwan and the mainland has been self-evident, and despite bumps in the recent past I want to emphasize this is a development trend backed by public opinion,” Hsia said on Saturday.
Zhang said the mainland was determined to keep ties moving forward.
“We absolutely cannot let mainland-Taiwan relations go backward again, even less so into the past,” he said. “I believe this is also the joint desire of compatriots from both sides who have weathered storms of the past.”
Zhang invited Hsia to the mainland for a visit.
The heads of the two government offices in charge of cross-Strait affairs have now met four times since their first session in early 2014.
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