Mainland, Taiwan media leaders call for permanent offices

A group of Chinese mainland media leaders on Wednesday concluded a 10-day visit to Taiwan, calling for the establishment of permanent media offices on both sides. The group of senior journalists from the Chinese mainland arrived on Monday last week at the invitation of Taiwan's United Daily News Group (UDN). Led by Wang Qiu, president of China National Radio, the group was made up of officials from major mainland media, including the People's Daily, Xinhua News Agency, China Central Television, China Radio International, China News Service and China Daily. Wang and Shuang Kuo-ning, president of the UDN, said at a banquet held Tuesday night that they hope both sides will mutually establish media offices in order to create a better environment for media exchanges. Wu Po-hisung, honorary chairman of Taiwan's ruling Kuomintang Party, urged media organizations on both sides to make greater contributions to the steady development of cross-strait relations through objective and unbiased reporting. The group went to Taipei, Taichung, Kaohsiung and other areas on the island, visiting major media organizations and conducting exchanges with their Taiwanese counterparts. Sun Zhijun, deputy head of the Publicity Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), and Ye Kedong, deputy director of the Taiwan Affairs Office of the CPC Central Committee, acted as consultants for the visiting group together with Wang Dongmei, a senior official from the All-China Journalists Association.