Over 1,000 guests and youth representatives from both sides of the Taiwan Strait gathered in Hangzhou, east China's Zhejiang Province, on Friday for a forum aimed at fostering mutual understanding.
Addressing the opening event of the 8th Cross-Strait Youth Development Forum, Pan Xianzhang, deputy chief of both the Taiwan Work Office of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, warmly welcomed young people from Taiwan and pledged to take more effective measures to promote exchanges and integration across the Taiwan Strait.
Pan called on youths on both sides of the Strait to firmly uphold the one-China principle and the 1992 Consensus, oppose "Taiwan independence" separatism and external interference, and take an active part in cross-Strait exchanges and cooperation in all fields.
Former chairperson of the Chinese Kuomintang party Hung Hsiu-chu attended the forum for the eighth consecutive year, and called on the youths to think about the island's future, especially under the current complex international situation.
"In particular, amid the increasingly intensifying competition between the United States and China, will Taiwan be used by the United States as a pawn to counter China, and further cause turmoil across the Taiwan Strait, or even a civil war in which compatriots will fight against each other? This will undoubtedly be a tragedy for both sides, but also a scar and a wound that will be difficult to heal for the Chinese nation," she said.
After the opening ceremony, the youngsters were divided into groups to visit several cities in Zhejiang Province in the following days.
The forum, running through July 15, features a cross-Strait baseball game alongside a series of workshops.
Mainland, Taiwan youths gather at cross-Strait forum in Hangzhou
