ＮＰＣ Ｖｉｃｅ Ｃｈａｉｒｍａｎ Ｃｈｅｎｇ Ｓｉｗｅｉ Ｍｅｅｔｓ ｗｉｔｈ Ｇｕａｔｅｍａｌａｎ Ｅｃｏｎｏｍｉｃ Ｍｉｎｉｓｔｅｒ Ｍａｃｉｏ Ｃｕｅｖａｓ

Macio Cuevas， economic minister of Guatemala， headed an 11-member delegation of Guatemala-China Friendship Association leading members and entrepreneurs to China at the invitation of the CPAFFC. They visited Beijing， Guangzhou， Yichang and Shanghai from June 20 to 25.

Cheng Siwei， vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPC) and president of the China-Latin America Friendship Association， met with the delegation in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. The vice chairman said， since reform and opening-up， China’s economic development has drawn world attention. China’s GDP occupied the sixth place in the world last year. China， a permanent member of the UN Security Council， has maintained diplomatic relations with the majority of countries in the world and 90% of the Latin American and Caribbean countries have established diplomatic relations with China. China is ready to forge diplomatic ties with all countries in the world on the basis of equality， mutual benefit and mutual respect of sovereignty. On the issue of Taiwan， the vice chairman pointed out， Taiwan has been an inalienable part of China since ancient times. The Anti-Secession Law adopted by the NPC not long ago has four key points: first， the one-China principle; secondly， the question of Taiwan is an issue left over from China’s civil war; thirdly， China will exercise utmost patience and sincerity to achieve the great cause of reunification of the motherland by peaceful means; fourthly， the non-peaceful means would be deployed only under three special circumstances (should “Taiwan independence” forces act to secede from China， should major incidents entailing Taiwan’s secession from China occur and should the possibility of a peaceful reunification be completely exhausted)， which is what we would not like to see.

Talking about the establishment of diplomatic relations with China， Vice Chairman Cheng expressed the hope that all far-sighted statesmen would respect China’s sovereignty and see the trend of development in the world as well as China’s political and economic place in the world， rather than doing something that would hurt the Chinese people’s feelings because of some minor and partial interests.

Minister Cuevas thanked the vice chairman for giving him such detailed information on the Taiwan issue. He spoke highly of China’s tremendous economic achievements and hoped to contribute his efforts to the promotion of economic and other exchanges between the two countries.