Cross-Strait event celebrating Mid-Autumn Festival held

FUZHOU, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- Over 200 people from both sides of the Taiwan Strait participated in an event on Thursday to celebrate the upcoming Mid-Autumn Festival, one of China's most important traditional holidays, in Fuzhou, the capital city of Fujian Province.

Song Tao, head of both the Taiwan Work Office of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, met with major Taiwan guests attending the event, including Andrew Hsia, vice chairman of the Chinese Kuomintang.

It is a tradition for Chinese people to reunite with the whole family and celebrate the festival, Song said.

"We will uphold the one-China principle and the 1992 Consensus, resolutely oppose 'Taiwan independence,' actively boost the cross-Strait flow of personnel as well as exchanges and cooperation in various areas, and continue deepening the integrated development across the Strait," he said.

The compatriots across the Strait are all Chinese and close as family, Hsia said, calling for cherishing the opportunities of peaceful development, building consensus and forming future-oriented visions, thereby boosting the positive development of cross-Strait relations.

Guests from Taiwan hailed the mainland's relevant policies to advance cross-Strait integrated development and facilitate cross-Strait travel, and expressed their hope for peaceful cross-Strait relations. ■