Chinese President Xi Jinping replied to Taiwan youth who participated in the 20th Straits Youth Forum on July 11 Source: the 20th Straits Youth Forum

The 14th Straits Forum kicked off in Xiamen, east China's Fujian Province on Tuesday. Before the forum, Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, replied to young people from Taiwan attending the 20th Straits Youth Forum. Wang Yang, chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, attended the Straits Forum on Wednesday and delivered a speech. About 2,000 representatives of relevant political parties, organizers and delegates from all walks of life in Taiwan were invited to participate in person. Participants from both sides of the straits expressed a broad and strong consensus: a hope to strengthen cross-Straits exchanges and promote the peaceful development of cross-Straits relations. 

Under the influence of factors such as the raging COVID-19 pandemic and the deliberate restrictions imposed by the DPP authorities, the normal exchange of personnel between the two sides of the straits has been greatly hindered over the past two years. Many exchange platforms have been forced to be shelved as a result. As the largest platform for non-governmental exchanges between the two sides of the Taiwan Straits, the successful hosting of the Straits Forum is of great symbolic significance in itself.

The biggest signal released by the Straits Forum is that both sides of the straits must develop and the Taiwan Straits must be peaceful. For some time, as the US and Taiwan authorities have colluded to deliberately create conflict and frequently challenged the mainland's bottom line, some people hope to "enrage" the Chinese mainland so as to prove the label of "coercion" that they attached on the mainland. In a sense, the more complex and severe the situation in the Taiwan Straits is, the more significance the Straits Forum shows.

Although the DPP authorities relentlessly blocked and even introduced bans to smear, attack and intimidate, all sections of Taiwan society still actively participated in the Straits Forum. In recent years, polls conducted on Taiwan island on cross-Straits ties, no matter whether sampled by pro-reunification or pro-independence think tanks or media outlets, or even Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council, showed that above 70 percent of respondents favored more cross-Straits exchanges and peaceful development. Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je made it clear that "the Taipei-Shanghai twin-city forum" should continue to be held. These are the real public opinions on the island, which are in opposition to the intentions of the DPP authorities. They also represent the "momentum" that the DPP has tried hard to reverse and extinguish.

Why did the DPP, the master of Taiwan political manipulation, fail this time? In the end, it is because cross-Straits exchanges, integration, and development align with the fundamental interests of people on both sides of the Straits, especially those on the island. This door cannot be closed, and this trend cannot be stopped. Compatriots from both sides of the Straits share one bloodline and are from one family where blood is thicker than water. And the depth of cross-Straits market integration does not depend on the will of the DPP authorities. Although the DPP authorities loathe the ECFA (The Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement), it still doesn't dare to abolish it.

These fundamental facts have played a steady role as ballast in cross-Straits relations when the DPP authorities and the "Taiwan secessionist" forces make waves and stir up trouble. They have given us more confidence in the peaceful reunification across the Taiwan Straits.

This year's forum will carry on the theme of promoting people-to-people exchanges and deepening integrated development across the Straits, with compatriots from both sides of the Taiwan Straits expressing their shared desire for peaceful development at the event. The basic policy of the mainland's Taiwan-related work in the New Era has not, and will not change: It adheres to the principles of "peaceful reunification" and "One Country, Two Systems." The Chinese mainland has always strived for the prospect of peaceful reunification with utmost sincerity and efforts that we can feel from the Straits Forum.

Because of the existence of Taiwan secessionists, the mainland makes no promise to renounce the use of force. This aims precisely to safeguard the prospect of peaceful reunification of the motherland and the fundamental interests of the Chinese nation, including compatriots on the island of Taiwan. It should be emphasized that force is used to deter and combat "Taiwan independence" and foreign interference forces. The DPP authorities are desperately trying to use more than 20 million people on the island as a cover for their action of seeking "independence." Therefore, the people of Taiwan must remain vigilant.

The pursuit of reunification by compatriots from both sides of the Taiwan Straits is righteous and open, while the DPP authorities' pursuit of "independence" is sneaky and apprehensive. The former is the outward manifestation of strong confidence, while the latter shows its guilty conscience oozing from their bones. That's why the DPP authorities are so afraid of the Straits Forum. Every sound emanating from the Forum is a great shock to the DPP authorities' fragile heart.