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Updated Saturday, July 11, 2009 10:37 am TWN, CNA

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Little chance of Hu-Ma meeting soon: Chang

TAIPEI, Taiwan -- The likelihood of a meeting between the presidents of China and Taiwan in the next year or two is very low, Kuomintang (KMT) Deputy Secretary General Chang Jung-kung said Friday.

In an interview with CNA, Chang reiterated his statement in the Hong Kong newspaper Ming Pao Friday that there is little possibility of such a meeting within the next two years.

According to Chang, President Ma Ying-jeou has said that there is no urgency for him to meet with Chinese President Hu Jintao and that there is still much to be done in laying the groundwork for better cross-Taiwan Strait relations.

Since Ma announced his bid for the chairmanship of the ruling KMT last month, there has been much speculation about a possible meeting between him and Hu, who is general-secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC), in their capacities as party leaders.

In the Ming Pao interview, Chang said that if Ma is elected as head of the KMT, the annual KMT-CPC forum would have to be arranged differently.

If Ma becomes chairman of the KMT, he may have to appoint a high-ranking member of the party to represent him at the forum, Chang said, but he declined to speculate on who might be chosen to fill that role.

However, Chang, who is also director of the KMT's Mainland Affairs Department, said that the growing cultural and educational exchanges,along with the strengthening economic and trade cooperation, between Taiwan and China bode well for a meeting between Ma and Hu.

Besides, if it appears that the Taiwan people highly expect such a meeting, “Ma will take that into consideration,” he added.

Since the KMT-CPC forum was first held in 2005, it has been attended by the leaders of the two parties. This year, KMT Chairman Wu Poh-hsiung led the Taiwan delegation to the two-day meeting, which opened Saturday in Changsha, the capital city of China's Hunan Province.

However, the forum is no longer limited to the KMT and CPC, as efforts have been made to turn it into a cross-Taiwan Strait platform for the exchange of opinions across a broad spectrum from different sectors of society.

The delegation from Taiwan this year is comprised of representatives of various political parties and government agencies, and from academic and industrial circles.

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