Academics, politicians attend Taiwan forum in Shanghai

A forum was held in Shanghai to discuss people-to-people exchanges across the Taiwan Strait in light of the new circumstances.

The third Cross-Strait People-to-People Forum, the first large-scale non-government exchange between Shanghai and Taiwan after the pandemic, drew politicians and academics from both sides of the Taiwan Strait.

The end of the COVID-19 pandemic has, according to the participants, created new opportunities for the two sides of the Strait to resume exchanges.

Former Chinese Kuomintang party chairperson Hung Hsiu-chu said in a video speech that it is time for the Chinese mainland and Taiwan to take a big step forward for the peaceful development of cross-Strait relations.

"This year marks the 31st anniversary of the 1992 Consensus, as well as the 36th year of cross-Strait exchanges," she said. "Let us continue to carry the torch passed down by our forefathers in the pursuit of national reunification and rejuvenation. We will undoubtedly achieve positive results if we take small steps towards the right goal."

The forum was held in the Grand Hall of the Shanghai Jin Jiang Hotel, where on February 27, 1972, then-Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai and US President Richard Nixon jointly issued the Shanghai Communique.

In the communique, the US acknowledges that "all Chinese on either side of the Taiwan Strait maintain there is but one China and that Taiwan is a part of China."

During the forum, an academic board was formed to conduct research on Taiwan's "one-country-two-systems" scheme and contribute to national reunification.