‘All efforts for peace across Taiwan Strait welcom’

BEIJING—China’s mainland welcomes all positive efforts to promote peace across the Taiwan Strait, Fan Liqing, the new spokeswoman for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, told a press conference here Wednesday.
“Positive efforts by any people and any party in Taiwan for opposing ‘Taiwan independence’ and promoting peaceful development of cross-strait ties are appreciated and encouraged,” she said. Peace and development should be the main themes for cross-strait relations, the official stressed, in reply to a question on the recent advertisement published in Taiwan-based media by Robert Tsao, chairman of Taiwan’s United Microelectronics Corp.
The spokeswoman told the press conference that the mainland has always promoted bilateral financial exchange and cooperation. To date, mainland authorities have given approval to two Taiwan-funded life insurance companies and one Taiwan-funded property insurance firm to operate on the mainland. Also, 14 Taiwan-based insurance companies have been allowed to open 17 offices on the mainland, the official said.
China on Tuesday urged the United States to immediately cancel arms sale programs, stop arms sales and military links with Taiwan. Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Liu Jianchao made the remarks when asked to comment on U.S. Department of Defense’s recent announcement of planning to sell 3 sets of Patriot II anti-missile equipment upgrade systems and affiliated equipments worth of 939 million U.S. dollars to Taiwan.
China firmly opposes to arms sales by the U.S. government to Taiwan, and had already raised strong objection and solemn representations to the United States, said Liu, noting that this has been a consistent and clear stance of China.—Xinhua