Chinese mainland calls for peaceful development of cross-Straits ties

A senior Chinese mainland official has called for staying committed to the right direction of peaceful development of cross-Straits relations as well as shared efforts to advance the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.

Song Tao, head of both the Taiwan Work Office of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, made the remarks in a New Year's message published in the first issue of the "Relations Across Taiwan Straits" magazine in 2024.

In 2023, the Chinese mainland fully implemented the Party's overall policy for resolving the Taiwan question in the new era and maintained the initiative and the ability to steer in cross-Straits relations and made new progress in Taiwan-related work, said Song.

Guided by the conviction that people across the Straits are all of the same family and responding to the shared desire of the people, efforts were made to restore the expansion of cross-Straits exchanges and cooperation over the last year, he said.

Continued efforts were made to deepen cross-Straits integrated development, improve the systems and policies concerning the well-being of Taiwan compatriots, and ensure that compatriots and enterprises from Taiwan region receive the same treatment as those from the mainland, Song said.

Over the past year, Taiwan compatriots and enterprises remained optimistic about the mainland market. He said they are fully confident in the mainland's development prospects and their future on the mainland.

"In 2024, we will uphold the policies of peaceful reunification and 'one country, two systems' as well as the 1992 Consensus," Song said.

He pledged efforts to unswervingly oppose "Taiwan independence," safeguard peace, expand exchanges, enhance cooperation, deepen integration and advance reunification to ensure that cross-Straits relations move in the right direction of peaceful development.

Song also called on Taiwan compatriots to stand on the right side of history, bring cross-Straits relations back onto the right track of peaceful development and advance the process of China's peaceful reunification.

"We are firm in our conviction that so long as we unite as one and work hand in hand, we will be able to achieve the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation and accomplish the great cause of national reunification," Song said.

(Cover: The Taipei 101 skyscraper in Taipei, Taiwan, China. /Xinhua)