The interests of Taiwan compatriots are damaged by each and every United States "stopover" made by separatists seeking "Taiwan independence", a senior Chinese mainland official said.

Pan Xianzhang, vice-director of both the Taiwan Work Office of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, made the remarks at a seminar on cross-Strait relations held in Chengdu, Sichuan province on Thursday attended by 130 representatives from both sides of the Taiwan Strait.

Pan said that separatists in Taiwan have colluded with external forces to provoke the Chinese mainland by making "transits" in the US, fully demonstrating that they are troublemakers jeopardizing peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait.

"The current cross-Strait relations are facing a critical choice between peace and war, prosperity and decline," he said, adding that the collusion between the Democratic Progressive Party authorities on Taiwan and external forces will only push Taiwan into a deep abyss of disaster.

Pan said the future of Taiwan lies in national reunification, and that the well-being of Taiwan compatriots is closely related to that feat.

He called for Taiwan compatriots to oppose "Taiwan independence" and external interference, and work hand in hand with compatriots on the mainland to safeguard the peaceful development of cross-Strait relations.

Taiwan's deputy head Lai Ching-te made a stopover in San Francisco on Thursday on his way back to Taiwan from Paraguay. He arrived in New York last weekend for a "transit".

More than 200 overseas Chinese who support peaceful reunification across the Taiwan Strait gathered in San Francisco on Thursday to protest against Lai, who is also a 2024 leadership candidate for the DPP, for seeking "independence" of the island.

The crowd gathered around the hotel where Lai stayed, shouting "One China" while waving Chinese flags and holding up signs with slogans such as "Taiwan independence is a dead end".

Zou Zhiqiang, deputy secretary-general of the Alliance for China's Peaceful Reunification in the US, said that Lai's remarks about "peace" during his "transit" in New York were meant to deceive the people of Taiwan and dispel US suspicions about his radical pro-independence ideology.

"In the past seven years under the DPP's rule in Taiwan, cross-Strait relations have been made more dangerous and have posed a threat to peace," said Zou, a Taiwan native who participated in the protest.

The best way to avoid war between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait is to abandon the stance of "Taiwan independence", adhere to the one-China principle and pursue a path of peaceful development, he added.