Taiwan blamed for drop in cross-Straits exchanges

Residents from island welcome to work, live, study on the mainland

The Chinese mainland is blaming Taiwan authorities for the decline of personal exchanges.

In 2016, 5.73 million trips were made by Taiwan residents to the mainland, an increase of 4.2 percent compared with 2015. Meanwhile, 3.61 million trips were made by mainland residents to Taiwan, a decline of 14.4 percent, Ma Xiaoguang, a spokesman for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, said on Wednesday.