Last Sunday, Hangzhou hosted the first Cross-Straits Youth Development Forum, organized by civil society organizations from the Chinese mainland and Taiwan. Liu Jieyi, director of the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, and Hung Hsiu-chu, chairwoman of the Taiwan-based Kuomintang, both took part in this significant initiative.

After 40 years of reform and opening-up, the Chinese mainland has witnessed rapid development providing unprecedented opportunities and broad development platforms for Chinese people across the Taiwan Straits. “We will continue to foster a better environment, optimize policies and actively build platforms for Taiwan’s youths who come to seek opportunities in the mainland,” Liu said.

More and more of Taiwan’s youths have decided to come to the Chinese mainland to take advantage of the development opportunities brought by reform and opening-up. “I first came to Beijing for an academic exchange year at Tsinghua University, and since then I fell in love with the Chinese mainland. This is the place where my grandparents were born, who then moved to Taiwan in 1949. I have profound feelings for this land and I hope one day I can contribute to the achievement of Chinese reunification,” affirmed Lin, a young boy from Taipei, who currently lives and works in Shanghai with his girlfriend from the mainland.

Like Lin, many other Taiwan youths are seeking better chances in the Chinese mainland and they also wish to further contribute to building more confidence through dialogue and exchanges. During the opening ceremony of the forum, Hung stressed the significance of young people from both sides to achieve the Chinese Dream. “The achievement of the Chinese Dream cannot be detached from Taiwan compatriots’ integration and involvement, and it cannot be detached from the mutual participation and sincere cooperation between youths among the two sides of the Straits,” Ms. Hung said.

The first Cross-Straits Youth Development Forum aims at fostering cross-Straits integration as well as greater forms of cooperation and dialogue among youths from both sides.

At the 19th CPC National Congress, President Xi Jinping reiterated the national importance of resolving the Taiwan question for complete reunification of the Chinese nation. “Resolving the Taiwan question to realize China’s complete reunification is the shared aspiration of all Chinese people, and is in the fundamental interests of the Chinese nation. We must uphold the principles of ‘peaceful reunification’ and ‘one country, two systems,’ work for the peaceful development of cross-Straits relations, and advance the process toward the peaceful reunification of China,” Xi said.

The first Cross-Straits Youth Development Forum, which gathered more than 500 youths from both sides of the Straits, is a unique platform for youths from both sides to work and cooperate while achieving the Chinese Dream of national reunification. Facing the current Taiwan authorities’ reluctance to accept the 1992 Consensus, initiatives such as the Cross-Straits Youth Development Forum will allow youths from across the Straits to make outstanding contributions toward promoting and expanding cross-Straits economic and cultural exchanges as well as cooperation for mutual benefits.

The author is a graduate of China Studies and International Relations at Peking University and the London School of Economics. Currently, he is working in the fields of development and public policy.