15th Straits Forum kicks off in Fuijian

Taiwan political figures and residents came to the Chinese mainland to participate in the Straits Forum despite obstruction of the island's ruling Democratic Progressive Party authorities, indicating that the pursuit of peace and exchange is the mainstream public opinion, a mainland expert said on Friday.

The 15th Straits Forum kicked off in Fujian on Friday and will be attended by about 5,000 people from various sectors from Taiwan, including Hsia Li-yan, vice-chairman of Kuomintang, the island's main opposition party.

The event is the biggest grassroots-level exchange event across the Taiwan Strait held after the COVID-19 pandemic.

Zhu Songling, a professor at Beijing Union University's Institute of Taiwan Studies, said there are many political parties and groups on the island who want to exchange and cooperate with the mainland as they know that communication and cooperation is the fundamental channel to resolve differences.

"Therefore, they dare to break through the obstruction of the DPP and boldly cross the Strait to the mainland, as a result of the public opinion and the trend of the times," he said.

The event will help defuse the tense situation and atmosphere between the two sides that the DPP has been hyping up, he added.

Zhu said as the island leadership election is coming in January, the DPP is very fearful of cross-Strait exchanges, so it has been obstructing exchanges and cooperation, especially on such a large scale forum.