Mainland hopes DPP to change 'independence' stance

BEIJING - The Chinese mainland hopes Taiwan's Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) will "gradually change" its "Taiwan independence" stance, a mainland official said Wednesday.

Acknowledging that the DPP, the island's opposition party, will hold four seminars on topics concerning the mainland, Fan Liqing, spokeswomen for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, said the DPP should learn about the mainland "in an objective and comprehensive way."

The DPP should eliminate hostility, adjust policies and reduce disturbances in cross-Strait exchanges and cooperation, in order to gradually change its "Taiwan independence" stance, Fan said.

The DPP should not "wear colored spectacles" and "harbor obsolete opinions," she said.

The central position of the DPP is that it still sticks to the "Taiwan independence" stance that advocates "one country on each side," which the mainland absolutely opposes, Fan said, adding that this stance has hindered party-to-party exchanges across the Taiwan Strait.

"Our door is always open. We are waiting to see whether the DPP will change its 'Taiwan independence' policy and remove the hurdles it has set for itself," she said.

"As long as the DPP changes its 'Taiwan independence' stance, we will make positive responses," Fan said.

The mainland and Taiwan have been estranged since 1949, when the Kuomintang Party was defeated in a civil war by the Communist Party of China and fled to Taiwan. The DPP was founded in 1986.