Mainland official stresses stability for cross-Strait ties

The Chinese mainland's top Taiwan affairs official urged cross-Strait relations to continue pursuing peaceful development in 2015, calling for "stability, development and benefits for the people."

Zhang Zhijun, head of the Taiwan Work Office of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, made the remarks in a New Year greeting carried in the January 2015 issue of government-run magazine "Relations Across the Taiwan Straits".

According to the article, titled "Keep the Momentum, Overcome Difficulties to Walk On," cross-Strait relations remained positive over the past year and mutual political trust were further consolidated.

In June, Zhang made a landmark visit to Taiwan as the first Taiwan affairs chief from the mainland to do so in 65 years. He held a formal meeting with Wang Yu-chi, Taiwan's mainland affairs chief, amid warming cross-Strait ties.

During the trip, Zhang also went beyond the city to chat with grassroots people from various walks of life, listening to their opinions on cross-Strait ties.

In November, Xi Jinping, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, met with Vincent Siew, a senior Taiwan politician, calling on the two sides to join hands, fend off interference and retain more active cooperation.

In the article, Zhang expressed his hope that the two sides will continue to oppose "Taiwan independence," pledging to expand cross-Strait economic cooperation and ensure closer ties between people of various classes and walks of life.

According to Zhang, the mainland will carry out more pertinent, favorable policies and measures to benefit grassroots people in Taiwan and offer easier methods for Taiwan people to study and work in the mainland.

In the same issue of the magazine, Chen Deming, president of the Association for Relations across the Taiwan Straits, also wrote a greeting vowing to improve cross-Strait economic cooperation and make more effort to negotiate on the topics such as aviation security and environmental protection.

"Cross-Strait relations in 2015 will see both hopes and challenges, opportunities and hardships. Comrades from both sides should cherish the hard-earned fruits achieved so far and safeguard peaceful development as the correct direction," Chen said.