DPP slammed for ignoring public will

As the Democratic Progressive Party authorities in Taiwan tightened restrictions on cross-Strait exchanges, the Chinese mainland condemned them for going against public opinion and continuing to engage in political manipulation.

At a regular news conference on Wednesday, Zhang Han, a spokeswoman for the State Council Taiwan Affairs Office, urged the DPP authorities to heed calls from the island's business and industrial communities, promptly remove unreasonable restrictions that obstruct cross-Strait exchanges and facilitate cross-Strait integrated development.

On Monday, Taiwan's federation of industries, the island's largest business organization, issued a white paper calling on the DPP authorities to simplify the screening process for mainland professionals traveling to Taiwan.

Regarding calls from Taiwan's business and industrial communities for smoother cross-Strait exchanges, Zhang said they reflect the will of the people and the broader trend, adding that the mainland has been taking measures to facilitate travel and exchanges between people on both sides.

The tourism sector in Taiwan has also called for greater exchanges with the mainland. The tourism association of Penghu county recently urged Taiwan's "mainland affairs council" to resume the "mini three links" connecting Penghu with mainland coastal cities. The DPP authorities responded that there are currently no plans to resume the links, citing so-called security concerns.

The "mini three links" refer to direct passenger, postal and trade links between coastal areas of Fujian province and Jinmen and Matsu, which serve as major channels for personnel exchanges between Fujian and Taiwan.

As the mainland has promoted the resumption of travel by residents of Shanghai and Fujian to Jinmen and Matsu, about 350,000 trips have been made by residents of the two mainland regions to Jinmen and Matsu via the passenger routes of the "mini three links" since August 2024, Zhang said.

Zhang accused the DPP authorities of disregarding public opinion and engaging in political manipulation, saying their actions have lost public support.

"The DPP authorities are the biggest obstacle to cross-Strait exchanges," she said.

Taiwan's education authorities recently said the "registration platform", which requires schools on the island to submit information when taking part in exchange activities on the mainland, has been further improved. Schools that provide false information could face reductions in future subsidies for exchange activities.

"The DPP authorities have resorted to every possible means to disrupt normal educational exchanges and interactions between young people and students on both sides of the Taiwan Strait," Zhang said, adding that the move exposed the authorities' ulterior motive of obstructing personnel exchanges and escalating confrontation and hostility across the Strait.

She also criticized the DPP authorities for fabricating data to justify banning mainland social media platforms. Taiwan's "interior affairs department" recently claimed that the number of fraud cases had declined after RedNote, or Xiaohongshu, was banned on the island in December last year, and said the app could face another one-year ban.

Describing the DPP's moves as depriving Taiwan people of their right to know and their freedom to use social media platforms, Zhang said such misguided actions cannot dampen Taiwan people's enthusiasm for communicating through mainland social media platforms, nor can they stop the growing public desire on both sides of the Strait to strengthen ties and draw closer to each other.

lishangyi@chinadaily.com.cn