XIAMEN - Taiwan's People First Party Secretary-General Chin Ching-sheng said on Sunday that the party has unswervingly stood for the peaceful development of cross-Straits relations and against "Taiwan independence."

Chin made the remarks while meeting Zhang Zhijun, head of the Taiwan Work Office of the Communist Party of China Central Committee during the fifth Straits Forum in the coastal city of Xiamen in southeast Fujian Province, where thousands of delegates from the Chinese mainland and Taiwan have gathered to discuss grassroots exchanges and cooperation.

"We have always insisted on people across the Strait being the members of one family," Chin said, "We will continue to hold the principal of one China and promote cross-Strait communication especially at grassroots level, so as to maintain the interests of the Chinese nation."

During the meeting, Zhang expressed his hope for more participation in the cross-Strait exchanges from the People First Party.