Kuomintang (KMT) Chairman Wu Poh-hsiung paid homage to Dr. Sun Yat-sen's Mausoleum Tuesday morning in Nanjing, capital of east China's Jiangsu Province, saying both the mainland and Taiwan belong to the Chinese nation, and are "closely tied by blood".

This TV screenshot shows Kuomintang (KMT) Chairman Wu Poh-hsiung (C) pays homage to Dr. Sun Yat-sen's Mausoleum Tuesday morning in Nanjing, capital of east China's Jiangsu Province. Wu arrived in Nanjing on Monday afternoon, starting the first leg of a six-day mainland visit. [Photo:CCTV]

He laid a floral wreath to Dr. Sun Yat-sen's sitting posture statue, delivered an elegiac address and made a deep bow in reverence.

After paying tribute, Wu wrote a couplet for the mausoleum--"tian xia wei gong, ren min zui da", which means "The State belongs to the people. The people are all the important."

The first part of the couplet, "tia xia wei gong", is what on the autographic inscription of Dr. Sun Yat-sen on a tablet of the mausoleum, a founder of Kuomintang, or the Nationalist party of China.

At the invitation of the Communist party of China Central Committee and General Secretary Hu Jintao, Wu's Kuomintang delegation started a six-day mainland visit on Monday.

Their first stop is Nanjing, where Dr. Sun Yat-sen is buried, and also the former seat of the Kuomintang regime that ruled China until 1949.

Wu made a speech stressing that both the mainland and Taiwan belong to the Chinese nation, and are "closely tied by blood", which no one could obliterate.

He said that both sides across the Taiwan Straits should face history directly, face the reality squarely and open up to the future.

"Dr. Sun Yat-sen's Mausoleum is a best proof for facing the history directly, and we are deeply moved," said Wu.

He expressed his thankfulness to the Nanjing city government for keeping the mausoleum in such a "good" and "sublime" status.

Wu said that people in Taiwan had showed deep concern over the May 12 earthquake in Sichuan Province, and the first message of sympathy to the mainland was from the Kuomintang central committee.

The concern from Taiwan compatriots was a natural reveal of feelings and showed a favorable interaction between people across the Straits, which would help forge more harmonious and closer ties between them, said Wu.

This TV screenshot shows Kuomintang (KMT) Chairman Wu Poh-hsiung (C) pays homage to Dr. Sun Yat-sen's Mausoleum Tuesday morning in Nanjing, capital of east China's Jiangsu Province. [Photo:CCTV]

(Xinhua News Agency May 27, 2008)