The Chinese mainland will continue to deepen media exchanges and
cooperation with Taiwan, said Ye Kedong, vice director of the
Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, on Thursday.
The mainland will make efforts to facilitate the mechanism of
dispatching resident correspondents to each other, Ye said at a
symposium marking the 20th anniversary of the mainland's official
opening to Taiwan media.
In November 1987, the All-China Journalists' Association,
commissioned by the State Council, announced that the mainland was
welcoming Taiwan journalists to visit.
The mainland started to allow resident Taiwan correspondents in
1994 and so far 11 Taiwan media organizations have dispatched
permanent correspondents to Beijing, Shanghai, Fuzhou, Chengdu and
other mainland cities.
However, Taiwan authorities did not give green light to
permanent mainland correspondents until November 2000 when only
four mainland media organizations, including Xinhua News Agency and
People's Daily, were allowed to dispatch resident reporters to the
island.
The admittance was expanded to the China News Service in July
2004, but the permits for resident correspondence of Xinhua and
People's Daily were suspended in 2005 only because the two media
covered, objectively, different opinions from those of Taiwan
authorities. The suspension has not been called off till now.
In the past 20 years, the mainland has received 13,800 Taiwan
journalists but Taiwan admitted only more than 700 mainland
reporters, according to Ye.
Ye said the mainland expects Taiwan authorities to stop making
obstacles for cross-straits media exchanges and readmit resident
correspondents from Xinhua and People's Daily.
(Xinhua News Agency November 2, 2007)