Luo
Haocai, vice chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese
People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC),
announced the opening of the 20th World Hakka Convention in
Chengdu, capital of the southwestern province of Sichuan,
on Wednesday night.
More than 3,500 guests and delegates from over 20
countries including the US, Canada and France, as well as 17
mainland provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions, Hong
Kong, Macao and Taiwan, attended.
Zhang
Zhongwei, governor of Sichuan, said at the opening ceremony
that the conference showed the great cohesiveness of Chinese
people, which will boost the prosperity and development of all
Chinese around the world.
The vice chairman of Taiwan's Kuomintang Party, Wu
Poh-hsiung, said he was very excited to attend the conference and
expressed his warmest greetings to all Hakka people in the world on
behalf of the five million in Taiwan.
Wu said Taiwan's Hakka people have long expected
the unification of the country, adding that this will always be the
mutual goal for all Chinese across the Taiwan Straits.
During the convention, symposiums on the roots and
migration of Hakka people and their prosperity, as well as on
China's western region's development, will be held.
After the first was held in Hong Kong in 1971, the
convention has been held in 15 cities around the world and the next
will be held in Taiwan next year.
The Hakka people, known as Kejia in Mandarin, are
part of China's Han ethnic majority who share the same written
characters with other Han sub-groups, such as Cantonese and
Fukiennese.
(Xinhua News Agency October 13, 2005)