Nearly 400,000 people from Taiwan currently live on the Chinese
mainland as of the end of September 2007. This includes more than
18,000 people who have settled down permanently, according to the
Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council.
There are currently about 270,000 "cross-Strait marriages" made
between people from the mainland and Taiwan, said Dai Xiaofeng,
director of the exchange bureau, part of the State Council
office.
Up to the end of September, Taiwanese people have made more than
45.83 million visits to the mainland, and mainlanders have made
more than 1.56 million visits to the island, said Dai.
"More than 46 million visits to the mainland, twice the number
of the Taiwan population -- 23 million -- will be made by the
Taiwanese people by the end of this year," Dai said, adding 1.6
million visits to Taiwan would be made by people from the
mainland.
Dai made the statement on Thursday, slightly ahead of the 20th
anniversary of Taiwanese authorities lifting the ban on mainland
visits as of Nov. 2, 1987.
Over the past 20 years the cross-Strait exchange has followed an
"extraordinary development path" involving more areas and expanding
its scope, Dai said.
Dai said that the decades after 1949 witnessed a historic grief
shared by people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait when "fathers
and sons, and brothers who lived separately on either side of the
Strait could not get together, couples could not meet each other
and family reunions were out of the question."
But cross-Strait communication was an "irreversible trend of the
era", Dai said. Taiwan authorities lifted the ban and allowed some
residents to visit their mainland relatives in 1987 due to the
strong wishes and demands from people on both sides of the
strait.
Taiwan compatriots later broke various restrictions imposed by
the Taiwan authorities to visit the mainland and came for both
sightseeing and investment.
Statistics from the Ministry of Commerce indicate that the total
investment on the mainland by Taiwanese companies has increased
more than 140 times in 17 years, from 1989 to 2006, with the
investment figures standing at US$45.04 billion as of September
2007. This makes the mainland the largest investment destination of
Taiwan.
Xu Mang, director of the economic bureau of the Taiwan Affairs
Office, told Xinhua that the mainland was Taiwan's largest export
market, with the cross-Strait trade volume reaching US$693.3
billion in September 2007. Taiwan exports to the mainland reached
US$573.7 billion that same month, boosting the island's trade
surplus to more than US$454.1 billion.
Xu said that cross-Strait charter flights have operated during
the Chinese Spring Festival holidays for four consecutive years and
more sea routes have been opened between the mainland and
Taiwan.
Statistics show more than 22,000 passenger voyages and 4,000
cargo direct-route shipments were made between mainland coastal
cities in Fujian Province and Taiwan, carrying 2.37 million
passengers and more than 4.83 million tons of goods.
The mainland has devised a policy package to boost cross-Strait
exchanges, including 54 preferential measures for Taiwan
compatriots promulgated since 2005 and 48 economic, trade and
cultural exchange policies agreed upon at three forums jointly held
by the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the Chinese Kuomintang
(KMT), or the Nationalist Party, since 2006, Dai said.
The policy package has helped Taiwanese people with more
convenient residential, employment and medical conditions, and
offered preferential measures to Taiwanese farmers and fishermen in
their sale of fruits, vegetables and aquatic products to the
mainland. This has boosted cross-Strait agricultural exchanges and
alleviated some financial difficulties occurring in Taiwanese
enterprises, he said.
"Up to now, the mainland has carried out all planned
preferential policies for Taiwan, and is actively promoting the
settlement of issues requiring consultation by both sides," Dai
said.
The two sides have also witnessed more high-level exchanges in
recent years, Dai noted, citing CPC General Secretary Hu Jintao's
landmark meetings with Lien Chan, then KMT chairman, and James CY
Soong, chairman of the People First Party based in Taiwan, in April
and May of 2005.
However, Dai pointed out that the Taiwan authorities tended to
limit these exchanges and that they were greatly affected by
secessionist moves in Taiwan.
"Various facts show that only through strengthening exchange and
cooperation can people from both sides gain mutual trust and thaw
out a previous estrangement. This accords with the fundamental
interests of all the Chinese people," Dai said.
(Xinhua News Agency November 2, 2007)