A spokesman for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council on Wednesday urged Taiwan authorities to clear the obstacles blocking exchanges and cooperation across the Taiwan Straits.

Li Weiyi, said that lots of work has been done recently to carry out the agreements reached between Hu Jintao, general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), and Lien Chan and James CY Soong, respectively former chairman of the Chinese Kuomintang (KMT) and chairman of the People First Party (PFP) in Taiwan.

The agreements were reached when Lien and Soong led their party delegations on a visit to the mainland in April and May respectively.

Li said the mainland has taken concrete actions to fulfill the promises made to the Taiwan compatriots, and has actively pushed forward the implementation of affairs which need cross-Straits consultations.

He expressed the hope that the Taiwan authorities can comply with the will of the people on both sides of the Straits, and change its negative attitude toward cross-Straits exchanges.

The artificial restrictions on cross-Straits exchanges should be removed in the interests of the Taiwan compatriots, Li said.

Also on Wednesday's news briefing, Li said relevant departments of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the Kuomintang (KMT) will launch more exchange activities in an appropriate time in the future.

The KMT local committees of five Taiwan cities and counties have successively visited five mainland cities, including Xiamen, Shenzhen and Qingdao, at the invitation of the CPC committees of these mainland cities from late August through mid-September.

He said these visits, or the first phase of exchange activities, have proceeded smoothly.
 
During these visits, he acknowledged, the two sides exchanged views on cooperation in economic, cultural, religious, educational and urban construction fields and shared the intention to cooperate.

"Relevant departments of the two parties will continue with their communications and launch other exchange activities at a proper time in the future," Li said.

Li also said the Taiwan Affairs Office has decided to extend the time limit for Taiwan journalists to stay on the mainland from one month to three months at any one time.

The decision was made with an aim to further promote journalistic exchange between the two sides. 

(Xinhua News Agency September 29, 2005)