TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The 11th Cross-Strait Qingming Cultural Forum launched in Shanghai on Sunday (March 31), where guests from both sides of the Taiwan Strait said “family ties” would enable lasting peace.
The forum was co-organized by research and educational organizations including the Shanghai branch of the Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) and Taiwan’s Chang Ya Jo Education Foundation (章亞若教育基金會), per CNA. The foundation is headed by the Kuomintang's (KMT) Chiang Hsiao-yen (蔣孝嚴), who was born in China’s Guangxi province.
Chiang delivered a video speech at the forum, in which he said both sides of the Taiwan Strait can “work together to revitalize China,” using the word “Chunghwa (中華)” that is common to both the formal names of Taiwan and China. He also said that he travels to Guangxi for ancestor worship every year.
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Meanwhile, KMT Legislator Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介) of Tainan appealed for cross-strait peace. Both sides share the “same culture, same race, and same blood,” he said, and added that it would be “cruel to meet in war.”
Head of the Shanghai branch of the TAO Zhong Xiaomin (鍾曉敏) praised former Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) planned trip to China that will begin Monday. Zhang said that the “blood and cultural ties” across the strait have never been reduced by politics.
The forum comes amid high tensions around the outlying Taiwan-held Kinmen Islands, following the deaths of Chinese fishermen who were pursued by Taiwan’s Coast Guard in February. Beijing blamed Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) for the deaths, while KMT and DPP legislators have clashed over the facts of the incident.
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