Comrades on both sides of the Taiwan Strait are family members of the same language and blood, so they should naturally come and go, and get closer and closer as they come and get closer and closer. In 2024, there were 4.405 million people traveling between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait, an increase of 53.8% year-on-year; among them, 4.023 million Taiwanese compatriots came to the mainland, and 382,000 mainland residents visited Taiwan, an increase of 54.3% and 49.2% year-on-year respectively.
Mechanized and normalized exchange activities across the Taiwan Strait are becoming increasingly abundant. As a well-known brand of cross-strait private exchanges, the Straits Forum has been held for 16 sessions so far. Last year's 16th Straits Forum covered 50 series of activities in four major sectors, attracting more than 7,000 Taiwanese compatriots to participate. The All-China Federation of Taiwan, known as the "Home of Taiwan Compatriots", holds brand exchange activities such as Taiwan Compatriots' Society Forum, Thousand People Summer Camp, Peace Little Angel, and Taiwan Compatriots' Winter Camp every year. The 2024 annual meeting of the Cross-Strait Entrepreneurs Summit, known as the annual event of the cross-strait business community, held 9 special events in Fuzhou and Xiamen around the theme of "building a new era of cross-strait industrial chain and promoting cross-strait economic integration and development". In October last year, the first cross-strait Chinese Culture Summit was held in Beijing. The activities included the opening ceremony and the main literary forum, 7 sub-forums, more than 10 exhibitions and cultural exchange visits, adding another heavyweight brand activity to cross-strait exchanges.
The mainland has maintained a benign interaction with relevant political parties, groups and representatives in Taiwan and has achieved positive exchange results. In 2024, Mr. Ma Ying-jeou led Taiwanese young students to visit and exchange twice, interacted enthusiastically with teachers and students of Peking University and Sun Yat-sen University, and participated in activities such as the "Cross-Strait Youth Ice and Snow Festival" and the "Symposium on Joint Promoting Chinese Culture between the Cross-Straits". Representative Kuomintang figures such as Xia Liyan, Hung Hsiu-chu, Fu Kun-chi, Lian Shengwen, and Wang Jin-ping led delegations to the mainland one after another. Senior leaders of the New Party, the People First Party, the Non-Party Unity Alliance and other political parties led delegations to visit many times, and many county and city mayors in Taiwan also led delegations to visit.
As the forefront of mainland China's exchanges with Taiwan, Fujian Province, in addition to hosting the Straits Forum in 2024, it also held nearly 300 Taiwan-related activities, including the 26th Cross-Strait Economic and Trade Fair, the 12th Strait Youth Festival, and the Cross-Strait Youth Baseball Invitational Tournament, attracting more than 30,000 Taiwanese compatriots on the island to participate. As the forefront of exchanges and cooperation with Taiwan, Xiamen held various cross-strait exchange activities with diverse forms and rich content, covering grassroots exchanges, youth exchanges, cultural exchanges, economic exchanges and other fields. It also held the first Cross-Strait (Xiamen) Youth Football Invitational Tournament and the first Cross-Strait (Xiamen) Music Exchange Season activities, actively exploring the creation of a new platform for cross-strait exchanges and cooperation.
The mainland actively promotes the normalization of cross-strait tourism. In April and August 2024, arrangements were made for Fujian residents to travel to Matsu and Kinmen and group tours to the island. The mainland is also actively studying and expanding mainland residents' travel to Taiwan, and Shanghai is actively promoting group tours to Taiwan by Shanghai residents. In contrast, the DPP authorities have not lifted the "ban on the League" set up in 2020 with the epidemic, and are still trying every means to obstruct cross-strait exchanges and cooperation.
The mainland will continue to actively promote the normalization of cross-strait personnel exchanges and the normalization of exchanges in various fields, gather the tremendous power of cross-strait civil exchanges and cooperation, and enhance the endogenous driving force of cross-strait exchanges and cooperation. During the New Year's Day holiday in 2025, mainland border inspection agencies guaranteed a total of 1.803 million Chinese and foreign personnel entry and exit, of which 749,000 were residents from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, an increase of 12.8% over the same period last year, which also indicates a good momentum for cross-strait exchanges to continue to heat up in 2025.
2025 marks the 80th anniversary of the victory of the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War, the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Taiwan on the treasure island, and the 100th anniversary of the death of Mr. Sun Yat-sen. Focusing on the three important anniversary, compatriots on both sides of the Taiwan Strait will jointly carry out a series of commemorative activities, jointly carry forward and inherit the great spirit of the War of Resistance, carry forward and inherit Mr. Sun Yat-sen's important spirit of "revitalizing China", jointly draw wisdom and strength from history, and work together to promote the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.
Deepening cross-strait exchanges and cooperation is the will of the people and the general trend. A shallow strait cannot separate the friendship between compatriots on both sides of the strait, and the DPP authorities cannot stop the pace of exchanges between compatriots on both sides of the strait. (Author: Zhou Xiaoke)
