People-to-people exchanges across the Taiwan Straits have continued to deepen in the past decade, while online communication became a major form of interaction between residents on both sides during the COVID-19 epidemic.

"The belief that compatriots across the Straits should promote exchanges, cooperation and development has been widely supported," Zhu Fenglian, a spokeswoman for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, told a news conference in Beijing late last year.

A growing number of Taiwan compatriots can find development opportunities on the Chinese mainland as the policy of equal treatment has been deepened to help them pursue their dreams on the mainland, she added.

The mainland has built 78 bases and demonstration platforms for cross-Straits youth entrepreneurship and employment, providing services for over 220 startups by young people from Taiwan, according to data provided by the office.

More than 2,000 young scholars from Taiwan are teaching at universities and colleges on the mainland, while about 3,000 university students from the island are awarded scholarships on the mainland every year, the data show.

Moreover, nearly 1,000 Taiwan compatriots have gained professional qualifications in a range of popular fields.

About 300 who live and work on the mainland have received honorary titles at or above the prefectural level, including the winners of the May 1 Labor Medal, according to the office.

Zhu said that the general populace and young people have become the foundations and engines for advancing the development of cross-Straits relations.

Every year, the mainland holds hundreds of summer or winter camps, and study camps for young people from Taiwan. It also hosts large-scale exchange activities such as the Cross-Straits Youth Festival and the Straits Youth Forum, which always attract tens of thousands of young people from Taiwan as participants.

In 2019, there were 9 million cross-Straits visits, including more than 6 million from Taiwan to the mainland, according to the office.

Zhu said that after 2020, online communication became the main form of cross-Straits exchange as a result of the COVID-19 epidemic and political obstruction by the Democratic Progressive Party in Taiwan.

Nearly 1,000 exchange activities are held every year, both online and offline, by compatriots across the Straits from all walks of life, she added.