New preferential policies on Taiwan reflect people orientation (3)

PEOPLE ORIENTATION

Experts on Taiwan affairs said the latest policy package focuses on improving the wellbeing of ordinary Taiwanese, including those having settled down on the mainland or local Taiwanese who have close ties with the mainland.

"The most salient feature of this year's preferential policies is touching down to the grassroots and focusing on the livelihood issues," said Zhang Wensheng, professor at the Taiwan Research Institute of Xiamen University.

Zhang praised the policies of being "subtle and considerate" and comprehensive, covering areas from educational cooperation to copyright trading to direct flights.

"The new policies will make cross-Strait communication more convenient and promote cultural integration, reflecting the people-orientated mentality of the cross-Strait exchanges," he said.

The latest policy package add to the total 124 such Taiwan-friendly policies released at the Straits Forum since it was initiated in 2008 as a major platform to further grassroots exchanges between the mainland and Taiwan.

As direct beneficiaries of the improving mainland-Taiwan relations, the ordinary Taiwanese are becoming supporters of this trend, according to Zhang.

"Taiwanese at the grassroots level are realizing their interests are closely tied to the cross-Strait relations and thus becoming the social foundation of the cross-Strait peaceful development," Zhang said.

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