China's top political advisory body announced on Sunday that China will hold a series of events to mark the 150th anniversary of the birth of Sun Yat-sen in 2016, a move that experts believe could help consolidate a shared recognition of history across the Straits.
Events will be held to honor Sun - "a great national hero, patriot and pioneer of China's democratic revolution," said a statement released after the plenary meeting of the Standing Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) National Committee on Sunday, the Xinhua News Agency reported. Experts pointed out that the national events will probably be held to honor Sun's contributions to the country.
"The scale of the events could be equivalent to those that marked the 70th anniversary of the victory of Chinese People's War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression," Lü Cuncheng, a Beijing-based Taiwan studies expert, told the Global Times on Sunday.
The CPPCC statement also recognized Sun's contribution to independence, social advancement and people's happiness.
Born in 1866, Dr. Sun is known for his role in the 1911 Revolution, which overthrew the imperial Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) and ended more than 2,000 years of feudal rule in China, according to Xinhua.
He, a founder of Kuomintang, founded a republican government in Jiangsu Province's Nanjing in 1911 after the fall of the Qing Dynasty. After his death in Beijing on March 12, 1925, his remains were placed in the mausoleum in Nanjing in 1929, Xinhua reported.
Since Sun is significant to both Taiwan and the Chinese mainland, relations would be enhanced if both sides acknowledge his legacy, Chang Ya-chung, an international relations professor at National Taiwan University, told the Global Times.
The CPPCC's decision was announced a day after the historic meeting between Xi Jinping and Ma Ying-jeou, the first meeting between leaders of both sides of the Taiwan Straits since 1949 on Saturday in Singapore.
During the meeting, Xi expressed his hope that the two sides could adhere to the 1992 Consensus, whose core is the acknowledgment that the Chinese mainland and Taiwan belong to one and the same China, consolidate common political foundations, stick to the path of peaceful development, and maintain the right direction for the development of cross-Straits ties, Xinhua reported.
The meeting has opened a new page for relations across the Straits, added Lü. "If both sides can jointly hold activities to commemorate Sun, the events will greatly boost a shared recognition of common history."
