US

'Positive' developments lead to warmer cross-Straits ties

By Tan Yingzi (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-10-18 11:05

WASHINGTON - Cross-Straits relations between the Chinese mainland and Taiwan have seen "very positive" development recently and both sides need to keep the momentum to accomplish the cause of peaceful unification, experts have said.

At the fifth Taiwan Conference last week, international relations professors from China and the United States discussed their new ideas about the cross-Straits relations.

Most participants at the conference - sponsored by the Global Forum of Chinese Political Scientists, Center for Asian Studies of American University and the Center for Taiwan Studies of Peking University - agreed cross-Straits ties have been warming up, with positive changes in many areas, especially in trade, Wang Jisi, dean of the School of International Studies, told reporters after the conference ended.

The Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council said recently that cross-Straits economic, cultural and people-to-people exchanges are now at the highest level in 60 years.

Cross-Strait trade totaled $81.91 billion in the first seven months of the year, up 55.9 percent year-on-year, the office said.

In June, the mainland and Taiwan signed a landmark free trade deal, the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement, cutting tariffs on the island's exports and laying the foundation for banks on both sides to invest across the Straits.

Since July 2008, Taiwan has allowed mainland tourists to visit the island on package tours with a stay of up to 15 days. The number of visitors is expected to hit 1.5 million this year.

This year Taiwan universities are also allowed to enroll about 2,000 students per year from the mainland.

Zhao Quansheng, director of the Center for Asian Studies at American University in Washington, DC, said that though experts from both countries recognize the recent achievements of cross-Straits relations, they share different views on other issues, such as pathways to unification.

Li Yihu, a professor from Peking University, said: "The key to the sound development of the cross-Straits relations is the growth of the mainland itself in politics, economy and culture."

He said mainland experts are now exploring various unification models, learning from the experience of the European Union, Germany and Tanzania, as well as analyzing suggestions from Taiwan experts.

China Daily