May 22, 2008, No 28
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) is pleased with the formal response issued by China today (May 22, 2008) concerning the content of the inaugural speech of the 12th-term President of the Republic of China. The MAC hopes that the two sides should continue to adhere to the principle of "shelving controversies and pursuing a win-win situation," promote the early resumption of institutionalized cross-strait negotiations between the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) and Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS), and jointly turn a new page in cross-strait peace and co-prosperity.
The MAC reiterates that Taiwan has completed plans and preparations to resume negotiations, hoping that direct cross-strait charter flights on weekends and Chinese tourists to visit Taiwan can be realized as soon as the coming July. This will have symbolic meaning for the renewal of benign cross-strait interactions and relations. We hope that by working together, the two sides can bring about a new era in cross-strait relations.