Illustration: Liu Rui/GT

With tensions escalating in the Taiwan Straits, the Chinese mainland authorities on Wednesday announced economic punishment on Taiwan secessionists, fueling speculation as to where the trade between the Chinese mainland and the island of Taiwan will be heading.

The root cause of the current serious and complicated situation in the Taiwan Straits is that the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is pursuing secession with provocative acts and colluding with foreign forces. With the pandering of the DPP, US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi landed in Taiwan island Tuesday night in disregard of stern warnings from China. By using the island as a political toy, she deliberately created the crisis with malicious provocation, with no regard for the dilemmas that the island will face or the interests of the people of Taiwan at all.

The beneficiaries of the dividends of cross-Straits economic ties should be the compatriots on both sides of the Strait, instead of Taiwan secessionists who want to undermine peace and stability across the Strait and split Taiwan from China with the help of external forces.

China's willingness to continue expanding and deepening cross-Straits economic and trade cooperation hasn't changed. Cross-Straits economic cooperation will continue and deepen on the basis of serving the interests of grand cause of national reunification, while also avoiding becoming the "cash cow" supporting Taiwan secessionist forces with ulterior motives.

Now as the DPP authorities are making more and more provocative moves to seek secession by relying on the external interference forces, it is essential to target and punish businesses and companies that support Taiwan secessionist forces while ensuring that the dividends of cross-Straits trade relations will better promote the people-to-people exchanges and national reunification.

The Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council announced Wednesday that Chinese mainland authorities will take punitive measures against the "Taiwan Foundation for Democracy" (TFD) and the "International Cooperation and Development Fund" (ICDF), two organizations that have close ties with diehard secessionists. Organizations, enterprises and individuals providing financial support or services for them will also be punished.

Also on Wednesday, customs of the Chinese mainland announced to suspend the entry of citrus fruits and some frozen fish from the Taiwan island. Taiwan's farming and fishing are mostly concentrated in the southern part of the island, a region that is traditionally the DPP's major voting bloc. So when its voting base is in trouble, the DPP will face the self-made crisis.

Last year, Taiwan island's exports to the mainland totaled nearly $250 billion, with its trade surplus against the mainland exceeding $170 billion. The cross-Straits economic achievements are the results of hard working of and joint efforts of the people on both sides. This momentum of cooperation must not be allowed to be sabotaged by Taiwan secessionist forces.

Now some countries may want to use the so-called "trade improvement issue" with Taiwan to elevate their relations with the island. But do they really care about the interests of Taiwan people by offering the island arms, pork and beef containing ractopamine, and nuclear contaminated food? And the DPP has no regard for the benefits of Taiwan people and only cares about the political gain of selling the island to the hand of external forces. The people of Taiwan must realize that supporting Taiwan secessionist forces is a dead end for the island.

Also, it is essential to punish those forces that maliciously use the island to provoke China's core interests to deter the trend from spreading further. The Taiwan authorities can not be allowed to use the money it earns from trade with the mainland to buy US arms.