A Chinese mainland spokeswoman said on Wednesday that the hard-earned peaceful development of cross-Straits relations has benefited compatriots from both sides and should be cherished.

Fan Liqing of the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council made the remarks when asked to comment at a press conference here on the Taiwan student protest over a cross-Straits service trade pact.

Hundreds of students stormed into the "Legislative Yuan" on March 18 in protest at what they see as "undemocratic" tactics used by the ruling Kuomintang to speed up ratification of the pact between the Chinese mainland and Taiwan.

A follow-up to the 2010 Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement, the service trade agreement aims to open up 80 of the mainland's service sectors to Taiwan and 64 Taiwan sectors to the mainland.