File photo of the Taipei 101 skyscraper in Taipei, Southeast China's Taiwan. Photo: Xinhua

GDP in East China's Fujian Province reached 4.23 trillion yuan ($592.9 billion) in 2019, surpassing that of the island of Taiwan for the first time, which is a "historic breakthrough" having "far-reaching significance for efforts toward Taiwan," said Zhang Zhijun, president of The Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits, and also a deputy to the National People's Congress this year.

Taiwan's GDP in 2019 is 4.22 trillion yuan, with a growth rate of 2.73 percent year-on-year, while GDP of Fujian Province in 2019 reached 4.23 trillion yuan, with a growth rate of 7.6 percent, official data showed.

The key factor that determines the direction of cross-Straits relations is the development and progress of the mainland provinces, Zhang said.

Dai Shugeng, director of the International Finance Research Office at Xiamen University said that Fujian's voice and initiative will be strengthened when it comes to cross-Straits dialogue with Taiwan as a natural result of economic power.

"Fujian's GDP has lagged behind that of Taiwan, thus the latter has had a lofty attitude when the two sides had discussions. Now, Fujian's economy is overtaking Taiwan's, with a much higher growth rate, which represents the enhancement of its economic strength. And the economic base of a society influences the superstructure of that society," Dai told the Global Times on Tuesday.

Taiwan's GDP ranked sixth among provinces in China in 2017. By 2018, GDP of Southwest China's Sichuan Province and Central China's Hubei Province both exceeded Taiwan. In 2019, Taiwan fell one more place and ranked ninth, according to a report from domestic news site guancha.com.

This year Taiwan's GDP will fall outside the top 10, said Dai, noting that Taiwan's economy has been in decline since Tsai Ing-wen became the regional leader, the pursuit of whom "is not economic development, but personal political interests."