Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council: Young people on both sides of the strait have become the main body of summer exchange activities

The Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council held a regular press conference at 10:00 a.m. on Wednesday, September 15 at the press conference hall of the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council. China Live Broadcast, the following is the transcript:

Zhu Fenglian: Affected by various factors, cross-strait personnel exchanges have not yet returned to normal. In the summer vacation that just passed, I believe that journalist friends were very busy, because you witnessed a kind of enthusiasm, a kind of persistence. Neither the COVID-19 epidemic nor the artificial obstacles on the island have prevented the continued advancement of cross-strait people-to-people exchanges. Overcoming various difficulties, compatriots on both sides of the strait have held a series of exchange activities with rich content and diverse forms through the combination of online and offline, while doing a good job in epidemic prevention and control, showing new characteristics that are very different from previous years.

The first feature: Young people on both sides of the strait have become the main body of summer exchange activities. During the summer vacation, a large number of Taiwan students and young people studying and working on the mainland enthusiastically participated in cross-strait exchange activities held in various localities. More than 350 people attended the Fourth Cross-Strait Youth Development Forum held in Zhejiang in July. Wang Yang, member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, sent a congratulatory letter encouraging young people on both sides of the strait to have more contacts, frequent exchanges, and in-depth exchanges, hoping that the vast number of young people in Taiwan would see clearly the general trend of history, shoulder the heavy responsibilities of the times, and contribute to promoting the peaceful development of cross-strait relations, promoting the process of the peaceful reunification of the motherland, and realizing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.

On the occasion of the Tanabata Festival, the All-China Youth Federation took the lead in holding the "Straits Youth Beggars Folk Customs Festival", with more than 5.5 million online participants. The 18th Taiwan Compatriots Youth Thousand Summer Camp held by the All-China Federation of Taiwan Compatriots was held in more than 20 provinces and attended by more than 500 young people from Taiwan. The Cross-Strait Youth Exchange and Cooperation Summit held in Beijing covered 35 series of activities, and the opening ceremony was viewed online by more than 10 million people.

The second feature: The cross-strait cultural exchange activities are splendid. Carrying out cross-strait exchange activities with the theme of inheriting and carrying forward China's excellent traditional culture is a major feature of this year's summer exchanges. Sichuan held the "Cross-Strait Bashu Culture and Art Season", including activities such as the exhibition of public art graduation works on both sides of the strait and the original art seminar of colleges and universities on both sides of the strait. In Beichuan and Taiwan, the ceremony of Dayu's birthday and the ceremony of public sacrifice Fuxi were held to enhance the spiritual unity of compatriots on both sides of the strait.

The "Fifth Cross-Strait Yue Fei Cultural Summer Camp" held in Chongqing and other places attracted more than 1,300 teachers and students from 15 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities and 217 teachers and students from Taiwan to jointly inherit the story of Yue Fei and carry forward the national spirit. At the "Taiwan Young Students Emblem Cultural Summer Camp" held in Anhui, young people from both sides of the strait visited Liu Mingchuan's former residence together and felt the inseparable historical kinship between the two sides of the strait. The 12th Cross-Strait Film Exhibition was held simultaneously in Beijing and Taipei, five Taiwanese films, including "Autumn Decision," were screened in Beijing, and five mainland films, including "The Siberian Tiger," were screened in Taipei. This is the poster of the film exhibition, the right side holding the microphone shouting "boot" is director Li Xing, and the left side is shooting director Zhu Yanping.

The third feature: a wide range of themes and innovative methods for various exchange activities. The combination of online and offline methods in various places organized exchange activities such as research experience, sports exchanges, and entity construction. Sichuan held the "We Came from the Yangtze River - The 11th Taiwan Students Tianfu Summer Camp and Yangtze River Ecological Study Camp" to enhance Taiwan students' understanding of the ecological governance and protection and development of the Yangtze River Basin through study experience, field visits, exchanges and interactions.

The Fujian Provincial Federation of Trade Unions and the Fujian Provincial Committee of the Zhi Gong Dang held the "First Homeland - Provincial Fujian-Taiwan Workers' Sports Exchange Competition", in which nearly 240 athletes from 24 staff teams participated, including nearly 100 Taiwan staff athletes. Fujian also held the 8th Cross-Strait College Students Entity Construction Competition, and for the first time adopted the roadshow method of "main venue + live broadcast room + remote video connection", and 9 mainland university teams and 3 Taiwan university teams entered the finals.

The fourth feature: summer internships and social practice activities help Taiwanese students grow. In connection with the practice of the theme of "I do practical things for the masses" in the study and education of party history, many localities have organized Taiwan students from mainland colleges and universities to carry out summer internships and social practice activities. Jiangsu launched the activities of "I help Taiwan students find jobs" and "I do public welfare with Taiwan students", and organized and arranged more than 500 Taiwan students to conduct internships in well-known enterprises in science and technology, finance, media and other industries for more than a month. This is a Massage Therapy service provided by Taiwan student volunteers from Nanjing University of Traditional Chinese Medicine for people with mental disabilities.

Guangzhou City held the "Building Dreams of the Pearl River, Spreading Wings and Flying - Internship Experience Activity for Taiwan University Students", and 58 Taiwan university students from 8 colleges and universities conducted 60 days of internship exercises in 42 enterprises and institutions. Shenzhen also organized nearly 70 Young Taiwanese internships in 38 enterprises. Sichuan held a summer youth creation camp for colleges and universities across the Taiwan Straits, and the design of the food street submitted by the team of Taiwanese students was adopted by the local government. Shanghai, Fujian, Zhejiang, Jiangxi and other places have also held different forms of summer social practice activities for Taiwanese students.

The fifth feature: go to the grassroots level, grounded in the ground. In organizing cross-strait exchange activities, many localities and units have paid more attention to going deep into the grassroots and experiencing in depth. Fujian Huaqiao University organized Taiwan students to go to Qianxian Prefecture, Guizhou Province, to carry out the study of the results of poverty alleviation. The Taiwan Affairs Office of Tibet invited Taiwan students from Tsinghua University and Peking University to go to the grass-roots communities and the frontline of Tibetan areas to understand the national ethnic policy and the effectiveness of poverty alleviation. Taiwanese students said the activities gave them the opportunity to "measure the motherland's great rivers and mountains with their feet and discover the country's development achievements with their eyes."

It is worth mentioning that many young people in Taiwan take advantage of the summer to actively participate in public welfare activities in various places. More than 70 Taiwanese students from Nanjing University School of Medicine and other universities participated in the nucleic acid sampling work in the local community, accumulating nearly 800,000 samples, making positive contributions to the prevention and control of the epidemic. More than 20 young people from Taiwan participated in voluntary blood donation activities in Fuzhou. Some young people in Taiwan took the initiative to participate in the flood relief work of henan in late July.

Entering September, some cross-strait exchange activities are or will be launched soon. Chongqing is holding the "Commemoration of the 110th Anniversary of the Xinhai Revolution and the Exhibition of Young Art Works on Both Sides of the Strait" with the theme of "Remembering the Same Painting of the Mountains and Rivers in Xinhai" and the first "Cross-Strait Cultural and Art Festival of the 'Xuanyou Cup'". The 2021 Cross-Strait (Kunshan) Mid-Autumn Festival Lantern Festival with the theme of "Flowers Bloom and Lanterns Illuminate Both Sides of the Strait" will be held from September 16 to October 15( tomorrow). Kunshan will also host the Kunshan Branch of the Cross-Strait National Baseball and Softball League in late October. The 8th Taiwan Youth Lingnan Tour will be held in 21 prefectures and cities in Guangdong, and the opening ceremony will be held in Guangzhou on September 24. In addition, the 4th Cross-Strait and Hong Kong and Macao UAV Aerial Photography Creation Competition, the Cross-Strait Youth Bashu Cultural and Creative Design Competition, and the 13th Cross-Strait Children's Art Exhibition are currently being collected, and young people on both sides of the Strait are welcome to actively participate.

General Secretary Xi Jinping stressed that "the friendship of people is valuable in the heart" and "no matter how many interferences and obstacles are encountered, the exchanges and cooperation between compatriots on both sides of the strait cannot be stopped, cannot be broken, and cannot be less." The internal driving force for the development of cross-strait relations comes from the non-governmental and grass-roots units. We encourage all walks of life on both sides of the strait to continuously expand and deepen exchanges, and will actively create favorable conditions for cross-strait exchanges and cooperation, promote compatriots on both sides of the strait to deepen understanding, enhance mutual trust, unite their hearts, jointly promote the peaceful development of cross-strait relations, and realize the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation with one heart.