People from both sides of the Taiwan Strait gathered in Fuzhou, capital of East China's Fujian province, on Sept 12, 2024 to celebrate the upcoming Mid-Autumn Festival. [Photo by Wen Linxiang/For chinadaily.com.cn]

Ahead of the Mid-Autumn Festival, a traditional holiday that symbolizes family reunion that will fall on Tuesday, more than 200 people from both sides of the Taiwan Strait gathered in Fuzhou, capital of East China's Fujian province, calling for peaceful development.

Song Tao, head of both the Taiwan Work Office of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, stressed upholding the one-China principle and the 1992 Consensus, resolutely opposing "Taiwan independence" when meeting with Taiwan guests attending the event on Thursday.

"It is a tradition for Chinese people to reunite with the whole family and celebrate the festival," he said, adding that the Chinese mainland will actively boost the cross-Strait flow of personnel as well as exchanges and cooperation in various areas, and continue deepening the integrated development across the Strait.

Hsia Li-yan, vice-chairman of the Chinese Kuomintang, said: "People from both the mainland and Taiwan are all Chinese and close as family."

He called for cherishing the opportunities of peaceful development, building consensus and forming future-oriented visions, thereby boosting the positive development of cross-Strait relations.