BEIJING - Compatriots on both sides of the Taiwan Strait bear common responsibility for safeguarding the country's sovereignty over the South China Sea islands, and their adjacent waters, a Chinese mainland spokeswoman said Wednesday.

Fan Liqing, spokeswoman for the State Council Taiwan Affairs Office, made the remarks at a routine press conference, at which she also touched on several other issues.

Fan said a new measure designed to boost cross-Strait tourism should bring considerably more mainland individual tourists to Taiwan.

The measure in question sees residents from 10 more mainland cities approved to travel as individuals to Taiwan, under a deal reached between the two sides.

Residents of Tianjin, Chongqing, Nanjing, Hangzhou, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Jinan, Xi'an, Fuzhou and Shenzhen are all now allowed to visit Taiwan as individual tourists.

Taiwan first opened the door to individual travelers from Beijing, Shanghai and Xiamen in 2011. According to Fan, as of the end of March, 57,000 mainlanders had visited the island under the arrangement.

Fan also said the mainland welcomes Taiwan's construction of a 5.4-km bridge linking two islands in the Kinmen area, noting that it will encourage more mainland visitors to Taiwan.

"We support every effort that will promote the economy in Taiwan and the people's exchanges across the Strait," Fan said of the bridge, the building of which is scheduled to start in May.