Beijing's 31 ways to win over Taiwan hearts and minds

Beijing has unveiled a basket of initiatives to deepen economic, cultural and social exchanges across the Taiwan Strait, following a high-profile meeting last week between President Xi Jinping and Wu Poh-hsiung, the honorary chairman of Taiwan's ruling Kuomintang.

Wu, who is believed to act as a proxy for Taiwan's President Ma Ying-jeou, also expressed Taiwan's desire to join Asia's Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership and to participate in other global activities.

The director of the mainland's Taiwan Affairs Office, Zhang Zhijun, said yesterday at the opening of a week-long high-level forum on cross-strait exchanges in Xiamen, Fujian province that the mainland would announce 31 measures this week to cultivate cross-strait interactions.

Among the six measures that he disclosed was the access that Taiwanese would be given to 10 categories of accreditation tests on the mainland, as well as the establishment of 10 cross-strait cultural exchange centres on the mainland.

Further, the mainland's Supreme People's Court will grant legal status to civil arbitration agreements formulated by arbitration committees in Taiwan.

The initiatives announced at the Fifth Straits Forum came as the latest attempt to promote people-to-people exchanges across the Taiwan Strait amid deep-rooted distrust.

Speaking on behalf of Xi, the chairman of the Chinese Political People's Consultative Conference, Yu Zhengsheng , said the mainland would strive towards consolidating peaceful mainland-Taiwan ties, while welcoming former pro-independence Taiwanese to visit the mainland.