A group of Taiwanese Communist Party of China (CPC) members have spent the past two days in Beijing choosing their delegates to the upcoming 16th CPC Congress.
Nine of them were elected at the closing session on Tuesday.
Present at the close of the meeting were Qian Qichen, vice premier and member of the CPC Central Committee Political Bureau, and Wang Zhaoguo, vice chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) and head of the United Front Department of the CPC Central Committee.
In his speech, Qian said that the 16th Party Congress was scheduled for the second half of this year. To be a congress delegate was a great honor, he stressed.
Recalling the history of cross-straits relations, he criticized Taiwan's leader for his refusal to accept the One-China Principle, his denial of the 1992 Consensus, and for undermining the basis for cross-straits negotiations.
However, Qian said, the mainland of China was fully confident in the improvement of cross-straits ties and the prospects of China's peaceful reunification.
(People's Daily May 22, 2002)
