Taiwanese students will pay the same tuition fees at mainland universities as local students, businessmen from the island province will find it easier to enter the mainland and people from Taiwan will have an easier time finding work on the mainland under new rules announced yesterday.
The new rules are another attempt to ease tensions across the Taiwan Strait, following the mainland's promises to present Taiwan a pair of giant pandas, lift the ban on mainland residents traveling to the island and open its market wider to Taiwan's farm products, said Chen Yunlin, director of the Taiwan Work Office of the Communist Party of China Central Committee.
The mainland will take three steps to make travel more convenient for Taiwan people.
First, the rules will simplify entry and exit procedures for Taiwan compatriots coming to and leaving the mainland as well as the residence application system, said Chen, who is also director of the State Council Taiwan Affairs Office.
Those who stay on the mainland for more than one year can apply for residence stamps valid for one to five years.
Taiwan compatriots who have such residence stamps need no entry or exit stamps when they pass through mainland customs. Those who have short stays on the mainland can be granted multiple entries valid for one year.
Second, the Fujian Provincial Public Security Department will be authorized to issue one-year-valid multiple entries to compatriots from Jinmen, Mazu and Penghu.
Third, the public security departments in Shanghai and Jiangsu Province will be authorized to reissue "Taiwan Compatriot's Pass to the Mainland" to those who have lost their documents or whose documents expired.
Chen said that tuition fees for students from Taiwan studying at mainland universities will be reduced to the same level paid by their mainland counterparts.
"The education departments will also take efforts to set up a scholarship for university students from Taiwan within this year," he said, adding that tuition fees will be subsidized by the state's coffers.
The director called on Taiwan authorities to recognize the schooling records of Taiwan students studying on the mainland as soon as possible to protect their legitimate rights and interests.
He said that the mainland will also modify policies to facilitate the employment of Taiwan compatriots on the mainland.
"The labor departments are busily modifying relevant polices to ease job terms on Taiwan compatriots who are willing to work on the mainland," he said.
After the policies are modified, Taiwan graduates from mainland universities will enjoy the same opportunities to work on the mainland as their mainland counterparts, he said.
The director said that the mainland will further open its employment market to all kinds of professionals from Taiwan and encourage Taiwan compatriots to attend vocational qualification exams on the mainland, and such examinations can also be carried out in Taiwan when conditions are "ripe."
"These moves are aimed at substantially solving the issues Taiwan compatriots are concerned about," he said, adding that more and more Taiwan compatriots are coming to work, study and live on the mainland.
The announcement of the new rules came at the end of the nine-day visit to the mainland by James Soong, chairman of the People First Party in Taiwan. He and his delegation returned to Taiwan yesterday.
Soong's visit closely followed that by Lien Chan, chairman of the Kuomintang Party of China, the largest opposition party in Taiwan.