Chinese mainland Taiwan affairs official meets former KMT chairperson

Song Tao, head of both the Taiwan Work Office of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, met on Saturday with Hung Hsiu-chu, former chairperson of the Chinese Kuomintang (KMT) party, in Xiamen, east China's Fujian Province.

Conveying Spring Festival greetings from Xi Jinping, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, to Hung, Song said that the 20th CPC National Congress held in October 2022 made plans for the mainland's work related to Taiwan at present and in the near future, and has a significant and far-reaching impact on the development of cross-Strait relations and the course of national reunification.

"We will thoroughly implement the guiding principles of the 20th CPC National Congress, and respect, care for and deliver benefits to Taiwan compatriots on the basis that 'the people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait are of one family,'" Song said.

The mainland will encourage and support more Taiwan compatriots' efforts to take part in the process of modernization, national rejuvenation and national reunification, he said, expressing the hope that Hung will continue to contribute to the causes.

Appreciating Xi's greetings, Hung said the Chinese modernization is the modernization of both the mainland and Taiwan, and Taiwan should not and cannot be absent from the cause of national rejuvenation.

The compatriots on both sides of the Strait should strive together for completing the causes of both national rejuvenation and national reunification, she noted.