KMT Press Release
KMT Cultural and Communications Committee
June 1, 2009
June 1 marks the 80th anniversary of the formal funeral of Dr. Sun Yat-sen, the founder and national president of the Kuomintang, in the Nanjing Zhongshan Mausoleum. On June 1, KMT chairman Wu Poh-hsiung led a delegation of more than a hundred people to pay homage to Dr. Sun Yat-sen at the Zhongshan Mausoleum.
In a speech given after the visit, KMT Chairman Wu said that the spirit of “All under Heaven belongs to people” (天下為公) espoused by Dr. Sun Yat-sen and what we had striven to do in Taiwan highlighted the meaning of the phrase “the people are supreme”(人民最大). Chairman Wu stressed that this was the tenet we followed closely. Chairman Wu pledged that the KMT would espouse the teachings of Dr. Sun Yat-sen in governance and strive to revive Chung Hwa (the Chinese Nation).
Chairman Wu led a delegation to pay a visit to the Mainland from May 25 to June 1. The itinerary included Beijing, Chongqing, Hangzhou, and Nanjing. During the visit, Chairman Wu and his delegation met with Hu Jintao, General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Chairman Wu also met with other important leaders in the Mainland and entrepreneurs from Taiwan now living there. In addition, Chairman Wu was awarded an honorary doctoral degree by Nanjing University. The KMT delegation finished its eight-day visit and returned to Taipei in the evening on June 1.
When asked about this trip to the Mainland at the Taipei Songshan Airport, Chairman Wu said that the visit to the Mainland had been successful. During the meeting with the CCP party central, Chairman Wu said that both sides had exchanged views on all sorts of issues regarding cross-Strait relations. Both sides agreed that the exchanges across the Strait over the past year had engendered positive effects. Chairman Wu believed that the people across the Strait supported exchanges and stressed that the KMT would continue to move in this direction.
Regarding the Wu-Hu meeting, Chairman Wu said that the issue of Taiwan’s international space could be first dealt with in academic discussions. To solve the problem, Chairman Wu suggested that for instance, the Mainland could help Taiwan participate in some non-governmental organizations in the beginning.