President welcomes youth from Taiwan

President Xi Jinping on Friday welcomed young people from Taiwan to pursue and fulfill their dreams on the mainland, calling on youth across the Taiwan Strait to adhere to the peaceful development of cross-Strait relations.

Xi, who is also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, made the remarks in a congratulatory letter to the sixth Cross-Strait Youth Development Forum.

He offered greetings to participants at the forum and said the gathering serves as an important platform for exchanges and mutual learning between young people across the Strait.

Xi said he hopes more young people across the Strait, through the forum, will become good friends and good partners, and keep contributing to the peaceful development of cross-Strait relations and the reunification of the motherland.

It is a shared aspiration of all Chinese people to realize the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, Xi said. Young people across the Strait enjoy immense opportunities to use their talents, and the prospects for realizing their dreams are extremely bright, he added.

He called on young people across the Taiwan Strait to keep pace with the trends of history and safeguard the overall interests of the Chinese nation and national unity.

Xi also urged them to remain committed to the right path of peaceful development of cross-Strait relations, and ensure that the future of cross-Strait relations remains firmly in the hands of Chinese people on both sides of the Strait.

Opened in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, on Friday, the forum included in its theme the upcoming Asian Games, which will start in the city about a week later.

The forum was launched in Hangzhou in 2018, and has been held annually ever since.

This year's forum lasts till Sunday with about 500 people from across the Strait attending the event.