Benefits of cooperation with mainland tear apart DPP authorities' information cocoon: China Daily editorial

The opening of the 18th Straits Forum in Xiamen, Fujian province, on Saturday speaks volumes about how people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait aspire to boost their interaction for shared development.

The forum is the largest cross-Strait grassroots exchange event, and has attracted about 140,000 Taiwan compatriots among the around 370,000 participants since its launch in 2009. This year's forum consists of 58 activities covering a wide range of topics, including grassroots governance, new media, finance, technology and fishery cooperation.

These activities will serve to deepen economic and cultural ties across the Strait, something the secessionist-minded Democratic Progressive Party authorities of Taiwan constantly try to undermine.

In his speech at the forum, China's top political adviser Wang Huning called for measures to facilitate cross-Strait exchanges and cooperation, enhance the business environment, strengthen industrial cooperation and expand the benefits and sense of gain for Taiwan compatriots and Taiwan-funded enterprises.

He welcomed Taiwan compatriots and companies to cooperate with their counterparts on the mainland, and called for people on both sides of the Strait to resolutely oppose "Taiwan independence" and the interference of external forces.

The central authorities have placed great importance on efforts to enhance cross-Strait economic and people-to-people exchanges so that Taiwan companies and compatriots can enjoy greater benefits from the Chinese mainland's pursuit of high-quality development during the 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-30) period and beyond.

In 2025, Taiwan residents made more than 1 million passenger trips to the mainland through ports in Fujian, almost doubling the number in 2023. More and more Taiwan residents are seeing for themselves the vitality of the mainland, the immense business and career opportunities it promises them, as well as the same culture shared by people on both sides of the Strait.

This year's forum has yielded concrete progress in implementing the 10 cross-Strait exchange and cooperation measures the mainland introduced in April. On Saturday in Xiamen, companies from the mainland signed agreements with companies and trade associations from Taiwan to purchase agricultural and fishery products.

This highlights how pragmatic cooperation can benefit people on both sides of the Strait. Yet, earlier this month, the DPP authorities tightened restrictions against the Straits Forum by prohibiting local officials on the island from taking part in the forum.

Apart from restricting in-person cross-Strait exchanges, the Lai Ching-te authorities have also sought to limit Taiwan residents' access to social media platforms operated by mainland companies, trying to create an information cocoon that shields them from a fuller understanding of the mainland's contemporary development and everyday realities.

The Lai authorities have also attempted to blindfold the island's remaining so-called "diplomatic partners". Yet the steadily shrinking number of those "partners" underscores the limits of such attempts. Reports say that senior officials in Eswatini — the only African country maintaining "diplomatic relations" with the Taiwan authorities — have advocated establishing diplomatic ties with Beijing. This is undoubtedly a setback for Lai, who sneaked in and out of Eswatini not long ago in an effort to shore up the "diplomatic ties" and subsequently hailed the trip as a "diplomatic success".

The more Lai attempts to blindfold Taiwan residents and the island's remaining "diplomatic partners" to the mainland's development achievements, the more he exposes the weakness of his narrative. Once people see the mainland's progress with their own eyes, political manipulation and misinformation inevitably lose credibility, leaving those who promote them increasingly isolated and out of step with reality.

The mainland's high-quality development provides a solid foundation for win-win cooperation across the Strait. Reality bites for separatists who obstinately stick to "Taiwan independence", but it spells greater and more concrete benefits for Taiwan residents who aspire for a better life.