Former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger said in Beijing Wednesday that the US government supports any dialogue between China's mainland and Taiwan. 

In a speech on the new world order, Kissinger said that it was not in US strategic interests to separate Taiwan from China, adding that the US hopes the two sides increase dialogue.

"Through the steps we have seen in recent weeks, the peaceful reunification of China could be achieved," Kissinger said.

Lien Chan, the Kuomintang (KMT) chairman, at the invitation of the Communist Party of China Central Committee General Secretary Hu Jintao, led a KMT delegation to visit the mainland cities of Nanjing, Beijing, Xi'an and Shanghai from April 26 to May 3, the first such trip by a KMT leader since 1949 when the party lost a civil war and retreated to Taiwan.

James Soong, chairman of the People First Party, is himself currently on a visit to the mainland at the invitation of Hu.

Kissinger said he was confident that the US and China are committed to close relations, and therefore the US will welcome any dialogue between China's mainland and Taiwan.

Kissinger is in Beijing at the invitation of the China Institute for International Strategic Studies. Meanwhile, Kissinger said in the speech that China and the US now face the challenge of "creative coexistence," and that the development of US-China relations was in the common interests of the two nations.

Kissinger said that US-China relations were in good shape thanks to joint efforts by both nations, adding that he was "very confident" about the future development of bilateral ties.

He said no single nation has enough power or wisdom to solve every problem of the world, and that China and the US should seek coexistence "in a cooperative attitude."

(China Daily May 12, 2005)