Wang came to Zhuhai to attend the Cross-Straits Relation Forum held by the Cross-Straits Relation Research Center. He said that since the alteration of Taiwan's leadership in March this year, profound changes have taken place in Taiwan's political situation. However, the policy of the mainland toward Taiwan remains unchanged.

We stick to the basic principles of "peaceful reunification, one china, two systems" and President Jiang's eight-point proposal on the Taiwan Issue. We have clearly expressed our stand of requiring Taiwan's new leaders to recognize the One-China Principle, and adopt the method of "listening to their words and watching their deeds".

We did so in order to give the new leaders a period of time and an opportunity. More than half a year has passed, the new leaders of Taiwan continue to adopt an obscure and evasive attitude on the question regarding the one-China principle. They refuse to accept the one-China principle, which has made it impossible to resume the cross-Strait dialogs and negotiations, and has thus plunged the cross-Strait relations into an impasse. The Taiwan authorities should bear full responsibility for the emergence of this situation.

Wang pointed out that there are many reasons for the current political instability, the plunge of the stock market and the emergence of chaotic phenomena on Taiwan Island. But the most important reason for all these is the failure of the leaders of the Taiwan authorities to adopt a sensible practice on the question regarding the one-China principle.

Wang said, "In our opinion, there are, after all, only a handful of people engaged in separatist activities in Taiwan. We are happy to see that the demand for early cross-Strait contact, dialog and negotiation under the One-China Principle has become the ever-louder voice of the general public in Taiwan, and those engaged in splittist activities have become increasingly isolated. This is a good trend.

He noted that developing the cross-Straits relation and realizing the complete reunification of the motherland is not only an important task for us after our entry into the new century, but also the common desire of Taiwan compatriots in general. Taiwan scholars present at the forum were generally worried about the present state of the cross-Straits relation and hoped that said relation would be stabilized and developed under the one-China principle. This reflects the mainstream of the will of Taiwan people.

When talking about the "three exchanges" (exchange of mails, trade and air and shipping services between Taiwan and the mainland), Wang indicated that an early realization of the three exchanges has been our consistent proposal. At present, economic and trade cooperation and exchange of personnel have reach a fairly big scale. Only by realizing direct and comprehensive "three exchanges", is it possible to meet the need of the development of the present situation. As long as there is a common understanding on the one-China principle between the two sides, it is not difficult to resolve related technical problems.

(People's Daily 11/17/2000)