Ex-KMT leader urges youth to learn about mainland

Taiwan must urgently strengthen education for young people and give them better knowledge on and communication opportunities with the Chinese mainland, former Kuomintang leader Hung Hsiu-chu said in Hong Kong on Thursday.

She said only by doing so could Taiwan and the mainland improve crossStraits relations.

Hung made the remark in a speech about crossStraits relations over the past 30 years during a 20th anniversary event of the China Review magazine.

The recent turbulent cross-Straits relations have caused ignorance and misunderstanding about the mainland for young people in Taiwan.

“Surveys show that over 70 percent of young people in Taiwan have never been to the mainland. Their knowledge about the mainland stays at 30 years ago,” said Hung, stressing that the education in Taiwan on Chinese history is “very poor”.

Wednesday was the 80th anniversary of the Nanjing Massacre, the mass murder by Japanese troops in 1937 that caused 300,000 deaths in the former Chinese capital, “but Taiwan’s young people barely talked about it and this episode of the history does not even exist in their text book”, she said.

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To improve cross-Straits relations, Hung stressed importance of enhancing education for young people in Taiwan, especially assisting them with better knowledge on the real situation in the mainland and Taiwan.

Moreover, Taiwan should create more communication opportunities to foster better understandings between young people across the Taiwan Straits.

Hung expressed her strong opposition against war. “Once a war breaks out, it opens the door to the hell.”

She said she hoped for peace, and Taiwan’s future reunification with the mainland should be achieved without violence.

Hung reiterated the two cores of the 1992 Consensus, which are to follow the one-China principle and achieve reunification across the Straits.

Also attending the ceremony was Yang Jianping, deputy director of the Liaison Office of the Central People’s Government in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. He said with the successful implementation in Hong Kong and Macao, the “one country, two systems” principle should also be the best solution for Taiwan to maintain its longterm stability and prosperity following reunification.

He said the cross-Straits relationship has faced threats such as “Taiwan independence” but he is confident no one can stop the integration of the two sides as long as the two can rid themselves of interference and work in accordance with the demands of the people.