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Cary Huang

Beijing says they will be treated like mainland counterparts, in latest effort to woo support across strait

Tuition fees for Taiwanese students at mainland universities will be cut and a scholarship fund created for them. Hong Kong and Macau students could also benefit from the policy - Beijing's latest effort to woo the support of the Taiwanese public.

The largesse was announced at a news conference held by the ministries of education and finance in Beijing yesterday.

Dai Xiaofeng , head of the Taiwan Affairs Office exchange department, said the central government would set up special scholarships for Taiwanese students and subsidise universities that enrolled them.

'Annual scholarships will reach 7 million yuan, enough to cover 20 per cent of the students from Taiwan,' Finance Ministry official Wu Guosheng  said.

Mr Dai said that from the start of the academic year next month, Taiwanese students would be treated the same as their mainland counterparts.

Beijing has been offering Taiwan sweeteners since early May, following high-profile visits to the mainland by opposition leaders Lien Chan, of the Kuomintang, and James Soong Chu-yu,  chairman of the People First Party.

The measures also include a relaxation of restrictions on Taiwanese working on the mainland.

Ding Yuqiu , deputy executive director of the Ministry of Education's Office of Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan Affairs, said the central government was studying measures to extend the preferential treatment to students from Hong Kong and Macau.

But she could not say if or when such measures would be introduced. Ms Ding said mainland universities had charged more than 8,000 yuan a year for Taiwanese students attending undergraduate courses, compared with about 3,000 yuan for their mainland counterparts.

'The new measures mean Taiwanese students will pay less than half of their current tuition fee,' she said.

Mr Dai said the central government wanted to encourage mainland universities to recruit more Taiwanese students.

He also said the Education Department would review fees collected by universities to ensure full compliance with the new arrangements.

Mainland universities began enrolling Taiwanese students in 1994 and the number of Taiwanese students studying on the mainland reached 8,700 last year.

Taiwanese government officials have given a lukewarm response to Beijing's offers.

While generally welcoming plans to allow more mainland tourists to visit Taiwan, they have been much less enthusiastic about a zero-tariff regime for fruit exports from Taiwan.



Fees slashed for students from Taiwan