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Cross-Strait ties deepen in era of easing tensions
Source: Xinhua |
June 20, 2013, Thursday
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TAIWANESE woman Huang Liang-yuh never thought she would meet her "Mr Right" during a trip to the Chinese mainland.
But in 2009 she married a man from Henan Province. They settled down in Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
Accompanied with her three-year-old daughter at the fifth Straits Forum held over the weekend in coastal Xiamen City, Fujian Province, Huang said her family is now considering moving to the mainland.
Cross-Strait exchanges are moving towards a higher level of mutual trust that will eventually lead to greater social integration of the two sides, said Shi Zhengfang, professor at the Taiwan Research Institute of Xiamen University.
"The feeling of estrangement on both sides is fading," Shi said. "People on the two sides used to be hostile toward each other, but they now hold either neutral or positive feelings about the other."
According to the mainland's Taiwan Affairs Office, more than 10,500 couples married across the Taiwan Strait last year, bringing the total number of such couples to 340,000 since 1987. Now in Taiwan, one in every nine marriages includes a spouse from the mainland.
Since 2008, when a new generation of Koumintang leaders adopted mainland friendly policies, relations have developed smoothly with cooperation in investment, education and travel.
In 2012, 8 million people traveled between Taiwan and the mainland, according to mainland figures.
KMT member Chao Yee, who also teaches in a Shanghai university, benefits from direct flights across the Strait.
"It took 60 years for the two sides to open direct mail, transport and trade links," Chao said, "I hope relations will improve further."
In 1949, communication between the two sides broke off after the Kuomintang (KMT) lost a civil war to the Communist Party of China and retreated to Taiwan.
Not until 1987 did Taiwan authorities permit military veterans to visit their relatives on the mainland, ending 38 years of estrangement between the two sides.
However, before May 2008, relations remained tense and the two sides were on the brink of crisis several times.
Kao Chia-chun, born in Tainan, Taiwan, remembers the atmosphere in the 1990s.
"I served in a combat troop in Taichung. Vacations were canceled at one point and we slept wearing helmets with guns in our hands," Kao said.
Shortly after the end of the crisis, he studied traditional Chinese medicine on the mainland, obtaining a professional doctorate certificate and a teaching job at Fujian University of Traditional Chinese Medicine.
"With grassroots exchanges increasing, my children will be a new generation of Taiwanese," Kao said. "They will have a deeper understanding of cross-Strait integration."
But in 2009 she married a man from Henan Province. They settled down in Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
Accompanied with her three-year-old daughter at the fifth Straits Forum held over the weekend in coastal Xiamen City, Fujian Province, Huang said her family is now considering moving to the mainland.
Cross-Strait exchanges are moving towards a higher level of mutual trust that will eventually lead to greater social integration of the two sides, said Shi Zhengfang, professor at the Taiwan Research Institute of Xiamen University.
"The feeling of estrangement on both sides is fading," Shi said. "People on the two sides used to be hostile toward each other, but they now hold either neutral or positive feelings about the other."
According to the mainland's Taiwan Affairs Office, more than 10,500 couples married across the Taiwan Strait last year, bringing the total number of such couples to 340,000 since 1987. Now in Taiwan, one in every nine marriages includes a spouse from the mainland.
Since 2008, when a new generation of Koumintang leaders adopted mainland friendly policies, relations have developed smoothly with cooperation in investment, education and travel.
In 2012, 8 million people traveled between Taiwan and the mainland, according to mainland figures.
KMT member Chao Yee, who also teaches in a Shanghai university, benefits from direct flights across the Strait.
"It took 60 years for the two sides to open direct mail, transport and trade links," Chao said, "I hope relations will improve further."
In 1949, communication between the two sides broke off after the Kuomintang (KMT) lost a civil war to the Communist Party of China and retreated to Taiwan.
Not until 1987 did Taiwan authorities permit military veterans to visit their relatives on the mainland, ending 38 years of estrangement between the two sides.
However, before May 2008, relations remained tense and the two sides were on the brink of crisis several times.
Kao Chia-chun, born in Tainan, Taiwan, remembers the atmosphere in the 1990s.
"I served in a combat troop in Taichung. Vacations were canceled at one point and we slept wearing helmets with guns in our hands," Kao said.
Shortly after the end of the crisis, he studied traditional Chinese medicine on the mainland, obtaining a professional doctorate certificate and a teaching job at Fujian University of Traditional Chinese Medicine.
"With grassroots exchanges increasing, my children will be a new generation of Taiwanese," Kao said. "They will have a deeper understanding of cross-Strait integration."
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