詹姆斯演讲:Cross-Strait contacts, exchanges on military ...

Cross-Strait contacts, exchanges on military issues can be held at appropriate time: white paper
Authorities on both sides of the Taiwan Strait can liaise and have exchanges on military issues "at an appropriate time" and talk about a military security mechanism of mutual trust, says a white paper on China's national defense issued on Thursday.
"The two sides may discuss political relations in the special situation that China is not yet reunified in a pragmatic manner," says the white paper issued by the Information Office of the State Council.
The two sides can have contact and exchanges on military issues "at an appropriate time" and talk about "a military security mechanism of mutual trust," in an effort to act together in adopting measures to further stabilize cross-Strait relations and ease concerns regarding military security, it says.
The two sides should hold consultations focused on upholding the one-China principle to formally end hostilities and reach a peace agreement, it says.
"The mainland's military deployment absolutely doesn't target the Taiwan compatriots," Senior Colonel Geng Yansheng, a spokesman with the Defense Ministry, told those attending a press conference held to introduce the white paper on Thursday.
"Problems about military deployment could be discussed when the two sides are talking about the military security mechanism of mutual trust," he said.
The Chinese mainland has been committed to stabilizing cross-Strait relations and easing concerns regarding military security, Geng said.
"To achieve this end, we proposed that two sides hold contacts and exchanges on military issues at an appropriate time and talk about a military security mechanism of mutual trust," he said.
"The Chinese people on both sides of the Strait should try their best to avoid repeating the history of armed conflict between fellow countrymen and jointly create a bright future for the Chinese nation in a peaceful environment," Geng said.
Thursday's white paper says both sides of the Taiwan Strait are destined to ultimately be reunified in the course of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.
The two sides should take a positive attitude toward the future, and strive to create favorable conditions to gradually resolve, through consultation on an equal footing, issues inherited from the past and new ones that emerge in the development of cross-Strait relations, it says.
Source: Xinhua