ABC News
Taiwan Nationalists Leader Visits China
Leader of Taiwan Nationalists Visits Tomb of Party Founder During History-Making Trip to China
Chiang Pin-kung, center, vice chairman of Taiwan's Nationalist Party, and the party delegation members greet bystanders in front of the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum Wednesday, March 30, 2005 in Nanjing, China. Chiang on Wednesday visited the mausoleum during a history-making visit to China that underscored a warming in relations with their former communist enemies. The Nationalists, now Taiwan's main opposition party, are billing the visit by vice chairman as the first by a party leader to China since 1949, when the Nationalists lost a civil war to the communists and fled to Taiwan. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
By ALEXA OLESEN Associated Press Writer
The Associated Press
BEIJING Mar 30, 2005  A leader of Taiwan's Nationalists visited the tomb of party founder Sun Yat-sen on Wednesday during a history-making visit to China that underscored a warming in relations with their former Communist enemies.
The Nationalists, now Taiwan's main opposition party, are billing the visit by Vice Chairman Chiang Pin-kung as the first by a party leader to China since 1949, when the Nationalists lost a civil war to the Communists and fled to Taiwan.
Chiang laid a wreath at Sun's mausoleum outside Nanjing, the Nationalists' former capital. Both sides revere Sun as leader of the 1911 revolution that ended imperial rule and created a republic.
"My heart was filled with limitless excitement and deep emotion," Chiang said. "It was very moving to visit."
Chiang also visited the former Nationalist presidential office, where he signed a guest book with the phrase, "Icebreaking journey."
Chiang's visit comes amid a surge in tensions over a new Chinese law authorizing an attack on self-ruled Taiwan if it tries to make its de facto independence permanent.
"We hope the current crisis can be minimized," Chiang said after arriving in Beijing later Wednesday for the last leg of his mainland visit.
The trip comes just days after hundreds of thousands of Taiwanese marched to protest China's anti-secession law, passed earlier this month.
"After the anti-secession law was enacted we saw reactions and protests (in Taiwan)," Chiang said. "The Beijing authorities have likely heard it for themselves but we have also brought the voice of the Taiwanese people with us."
In Beijing, Chiang attended a dinner at the Diaoyutai state guest house hosted by Chen Yunlin, the chief of the Chinese Cabinet's Taiwan Affairs Office. Chen said the delegation's visit served to open "party to party dialogue."
Both the Nationalists and the Communists see his five-day trip as sealing a reconciliation. They have found common cause in their desire to unite Taiwan with the mainland and their dislike for independence-minded Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian.
KMT Vice Chairman Chiang Pin-kung is meeting with CPC officials in Beijing.

A delegation of from the Chinese Kuomintang (KMT, or Nationalist Party), is meeting with Communist Party of China (CPC) officials in Beijing today, led by KMT Vice Chairman Chiang Pin-kung.

"We hope the current crisis can be minimized," Chiang said in Beijing. "After the anti-secession law was enacted we saw reactions and protests," he continued, "The Beijing authorities have likely heard it for themselves but we have also brought the voice of the Taiwanese people with us."

===Banquet and meeting===
Chen Yunlin, director of the Taiwan Affairs Office of the People's Republic of China, hosted Chiang at a banquet in Beijing's Diaoyutai State Guesthouse. Chen characterized the delegation's visit as opening "party to party dialogue" and that the visit "has inaugurated the first sign of a dialogue between your Party and our Party."

Wednesday evening, Chen met with the delegation to discuss cross-Straits economic ties. Representatives from numerous other Chinese agencies were also present at the meeting, including the Ministries of Agriculture and Commerce, and the General Administration of Civil Aviation. The meeting discussed the possibility of opening up Taiwan to tourists from the mainland.

Zhu Peikang, Vice Chairman of the Central Committee of the mainland's Revolutionary Committee of the Kuomintang, also welcomed the Nationalist delegation.

Zhu said Chiang's visit was important, and "focused on the common interests of the people on both sides and the promotion of the cross-Straits exchanges and cooperation."

===Visit to Nanjing===
The Nationalists are the main opposition party in Taiwan.
Earlier in the day, Chiang was in Nanjing, to lay a wreath at the tomb of his party's founder, Sun Yat-sen. He also signed a guest book at the former Nationalists presidential office with the line, "Icebreaking journey."

"My heart was filled with limitless excitement and deep emotion," Chiang told the ''Associated Press''. "It was very moving to visit."

Nanjing was the former capital used by the Nationalists before they lost the civil war with the Communists and evacuated to Taiwan in 1949.

===Reaction===
In Taiwan, Joseph Wu, chairman of the Mainland Affairs Council, condemned the visit by the Nationalist delegation to the mainland.

"The Chinese strategy is always divide and conquer, and the KMT is playing into China's hands," he told ''The New York Times'' and ''International Herald Tribune'' reporters. "It's very odd that they would cooperate with the Communist Party instead of the ruling party here on Taiwan," Wu said.

Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Michael Ying-mao Kau disclosed that the United States is concerned about the Nationalist visit, and that American officials have privately said that Taiwan's political parties should first unify and build a consensus to strengthen their negotiating position with mainland China.