The International Leadership Foundation has awarded its Leadership for Peace honor to Lien Chan, honorary chairman of the Chinese Kuomintang, in recognition of his contribution to peaceful development across the Taiwan Straits.

As KMT chairman in 2005, Lien visited the Chinese mainland to meet with Hu Jintao, China's president and general secretary of the Communist Party of China, or CPC. It was the highest-level exchange between their parties since Chiang Kai-shek and Mao Zedong met in Chongqing in 1945. After losing the civil war to the CPC in 1949, the KMT relocated to Taiwan.

"My courage to go to Beijing at that particular moment came from the belief that I was going with the tide of history and performing the will of the people," Lien said Thursday evening in a speech after receiving the award in Washington.

The International Leadership Foundation is a US-based nonprofit group that promotes civic awareness, public service and the economic influence of the Asian-Pacific-American community. Each year, the foundation honors individuals for professional achievements, efforts to improve lives in the community or strengthening ties to the Pacific Rim.

Lien's trip seven years ago was hailed as a "journey of peace" after tensions had mounted in the Taiwan Straits. Since 2000, Taiwan leader Chen Shui-bian of the Democratic Progressive Party has pursued Taiwan's "de jure independence". But the KMT opposed this move.

In March 2005, the central government in Beijing enacted the Anti-Secession Law, established a legal framework to prevent Taiwan from seceding from China and promote peaceful reunification. The following month, at Hu's invitation, Lien made an eight-day trip to Nanjing, Beijing, Shanghai and his birthplace, Xi'an. He also gave a speech at Peking University.

In Beijing, the meeting between Hu and Lien ended with a five-point statement laying the groundwork for enhanced cross-Straits economic cooperation and political reconciliation.

During his speech Thursday, Lien recalled that trip and said he was convinced that history would judge his"journey of peace" favorably.

Under those initiatives, after the KMT returned to power in Taiwan in 2008, the cross-Straits economic, cultural and people-to-people exchange has reached a 60-year peak, according to China's State Council's Taiwan Affairs Office.

In June 2010, the Chinese mainland and Taiwan signed the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement, a landmark free-trade pact that cut tariffs on the island's exports and laid the foundation for banks on each side to invest across the Straits.

"We have started a new beginning as both sides of the Straits focus on peaceful development," Lien said. "Gone are the days of hot war, cold war, confrontations and conflicts. Cross-Straits peaceful development is actually in line with the concept of a global village."

Along with its annual award ceremony, the International Leadership Foundation hosts a Young Ambassador Program, which prepares the next generation of world leaders to address contemporary business and political issues.

This year, 60 students and young professionals from Beijing, Shanghai and Taipei participated in the 12-day program in Washington and the US Northeast. They attended lectures, went on excursions and discussed various business, governance and public-policy matters, including through visits to the White House, Congress, US government agencies, the United Nations, New York City's financial district and top US universities.

Contact the writer at tanyingzi@chinadailyusa.com