Taiwan and China held a cultural forum in Shanghai yesterday, underscoring the importance of “kinship” and “shared memories” against the backdrop of heightened tensions across the Taiwan Strait.
Academics and officials emphasized the importance of both sides pursuing peace, due to close bloodline relationships.
“Without kinship, cross-strait relations would be reduced to a competition of strengths,” said Li Mi (李秘), executive director of the Shanghai Public Relations Research Institute, one of the event’s Chinese organizers.
Photo: Reuters
The two sides share a common language, ethnicity and bloodline, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介) said, adding that engaging in warfare would be cruel.
He also called for the continuous expansion of seeds of peace in cross-strait exchanges.
Taiwan and China should not only focus on facilitating trade, travel and financial interactions, but also on sharing information and culture, Chinese Education, Culture and Economy Promotion Association chairman Chang King-yuh (張京育) said.
Cross-strait tensions were triggered recently when Beijing intensified patrols in waters around Kinmen County and Chinese-controlled Xiamen after a boat chase by the Coast Guard Administration resulted in the deaths of two Chinese nationals last month.
She hoped the forum could have a positive effect, similar to the visit former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) made to China last year to pay respects to his ancestors, Shanghai’s Taiwan Affairs Office director Zhong Xiaomin (鍾曉敏) said. This was the first such visit by a former president of Taiwan.
Ma is to lead a delegation of Taiwanese students to China from today to April 11, visiting companies and sites of historical or cultural significance in Guangdong and Shaanxi provinces.
The trip includes a stop in Beijing, with media speculating a potential reprise of Ma’s 2015 meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平).
This has not been confirmed by either side.
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