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Offices to open across the Straits

By Xie Yu (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-05-14 07:52

A proposal to set up offices on the mainland and in Taiwan for organizations involved in cross-Straits talks is gaining support.

"Once both sides agree that the conditions are in place, the mainland is willing to talk about this issue," Yang Yi, spokesman for the State Council Taiwan Affairs Office, said Wednesday.

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The idea to have the mainland's Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits and Taiwan's Straits Exchange Foundation exchange offices was proposed by the island's "president" Ma Ying-jeou last Friday. Yang said the mainland considers it "very necessary".

Li Jiaquan, former director of the Institute of Taiwan Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, thinks the time is ripe to set up the offices.

"People across the Straits contact each other so frequently it's definitely necessary to open offices," he said.

But he also pointed out possible obstacles from Taiwan's opposition party.

"Taiwan's Democratic Progressive Party is opposing every consensus or cooperation between the two sides," Li said.

Hu to meet Wu

President Hu Jintao will meet the chairman of Taiwan's ruling Kuomintang party, Wu Poh-hsiung, in Beijing during his upcoming visit to the mainland.

The visit will coincide with Wu's trip to Nanjing this month to attend a ceremony marking the 80th anniversary of the burial of Kuomintang founder Sun Yat-sen, Yang said. Wu will also lead party officials to the mainland in mid-July for a forum jointly held with the Communist Party of China.

Hu and Wu first met in Beijing on May 28 last year, days after Ma became Taiwan leader.

Forum for exchange

Yang also said a coming forum to be held in Fujian province from May 15 to 22 will help enhance civil exchanges between people across the Straits.

More than 8,000 Taiwan people from the central and southern part of the island are to attend the forum, Yang said.

Vice-chairman of the Kuomintang Chu Li-luan, plus mayors and representatives from 25 Taiwan cities and counties, heads of key trade organizations and representatives of more than 20 industries on the island will attend, Yang said.

They are to be joined by the mainland's top political advisor Jia Qinglin, senior civil servants, and experts and scholars from the mainland, he said.

Taiwan verdicts

Yang also said the Supreme People's Court would issue a supplementary regulation on facilitating the enforcement of Taiwan civil verdicts and arbitrary decisions on the mainland, to better protect rights and interests of people from Taiwan.

The two agreed on joint efforts to crack down on crime and promote judiciary assistance in cross-Straits talks last month.