Taiwan youth look to mainland
Print Edition
AN entry permit requirement for Taiwan residents traveling to China’s mainland is to be lifted as part of a wider plan to reduce barriers across the Taiwan Strait.
Yu Zhengsheng, chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, made the announcement at an annual forum for cross-Strait exchanges in the southern city of Xiamen.
But he did not give a date when the policy would take effect.
The move will make life easier for the hundreds of thousands of Taiwanese who travel to the mainland for work or leisure every year. Taiwanese made more than five million visits to the mainland in 2014, according to official statistics, an increase of about a million from 2008.
Taiwan residents currently need to apply for an entry permit before traveling to the mainland. As part of the reform, the passport-like document that was previously used for the entry permit will be replaced with a card allowing automatic entry.
Yu, speaking at the seventh Strait Forum, promised to create better conditions for cross-Strait exchanges.
“We’ll continue to expand people-to-people exchanges across the Strait and engage more Taiwan compatriots in the trend of cross-Strait interaction,” he said.
Forum participants said the permit-free policy would make it much easier for Taiwan residents to visit the mainland, good news for booming cross-Strait tourism, business and people to people exchanges.
Taiwan and the mainland broke off ties in 1949, after the Kuomintang (KMT) lost a civil war with the Communist Party of China and fled to the island.
Cross-Strait exchanges and travels only became widely possible after 2008, when the KMT adopted mainland-friendly policies and the two sides opened direct mail, transport and trade links.
In another breakthrough in cross-Strait ties, the mainland began to allow residents in certain cities to visit Taiwan as individual tourists in 2011 in a bid to boost Taiwan’s tourism. So far, residents in 47 cities have been given such permits.
Official statistics show that in 2014 Taiwan residents made 5.37 million visits to the mainland, up from 4.36 million in 2008.
Mainlanders made 4.04 million visits to Taiwan last year, compared with 280,000 in 2008.
The permit-free policy “will not only bring simpler procedures but also narrow the psychological distance between the sides,” said Cheng An-guo, a senior KMT official.
Wei Cheng-tai, president of a Taiwan-based interior design firm, said easier access would enhance the mainland’s appeal to Taiwan youth, many of whom are attracted by the bigger market and greater business potential on the other side of the Strait.
The mainland has been increasingly drawing Taiwan job seekers who complain of low salaries on the island. A poll conducted by Taiwan’s TVBS earlier this year indicated about one third of Taiwanese aged between 20 and 29 are interested in working on the mainland.
Yu acknowledged problems in current cross-Strait communication, noting that the island’s “separatist force” is still the biggest obstacle for peaceful cross-Strait relations.
“We’ll consistently support exchanges among people of the two sides and firmly oppose the separatist forces’ obstructive intent to the peaceful development of the relations,” he said.
“It’s common that people across the Strait have different perceptions over some issues, given different historical experiences they have encountered, and different social and political systems they live with. It’s understandable that some Taiwan compatriots still harbor misgivings on the development of cross-Strait ties,” he said.
It is the existing differences that highlighted the necessity of exchanges across the Strait, Yu added.
Hau Lung-pin, the KMT’s vice chairman, said only interaction between ordinary people can secure a peaceful and stable cross-Strait development.
In March 2014, Taiwanstudents seized the headquarters of the island’s legislative body in protest at what they saw as the undemocratic methods KMT employed to push a mainland-Taiwan trade pact and its negative impact on Taiwan’s economy and society.
The protest prompted concerns over misunderstandings among Taiwanese, highlighting the need for deepening cross-Strait exchanges.
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