Chen Yunlin, head of Committee for Liaison with Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and Overseas Chinese of People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), held a roundtable talk at the Chinese Consulate with representatives from the Bay Area Chinese communities on July 17, 2012. He was joined by Chinese Consul General Gao Zhansheng, who was serving as the moderator for the discussion.

The discussion began with Consul General Gao's brief presentation on how the local Chinese communities have been actively involved in contributing to China's development, advancing the country's peaceful reunification, promoting Chinese culture in American society and fostering China-US friendship.

Chen Yunlin listened intensely to the attendants' views and suggestions as to how to better develop Chinese language education and promote Chinese culture in the United States. He described the views as "very useful and constructive", and responded accordingly.

Chen went on to elaborate on a series of achievements attained by China during the last decade and on the historical breakthroughs made in developing Cross-Straits relations since 2008.

"We will build on our existing policies on Taiwan and continue to promote peaceful development of Cross-Strait ties. Efforts must be made to continuously consolidate political mutual trust and enhance cooperation between the two sides according to the practice of "first economics, then politics" and "easy things prior to the difficult ones, " Chen said.

He also shared his thoughts on future development of Cross-Strait relations.

Chen and the Chinese Community leaders also interacted on many other issues.