ile Photo: Ma Xiaoguang, spokesperson for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council. [Photo/Xinhua] The Chinese mainland will expand exchanges with Taiwan if the island removes obstacles hindering cross-Straits communications, a mainland spokesman said on Wednesday after many newly elected county and city heads said they expect more cooperation with the mainland to boost their economy. Ma Xiaoguang, spokesman for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, said that with a correct understanding of the nature of cross-Straits relations, the exchanges and cooperation between counties and cities will definitely be more extensive. In Taiwan's local elections over the weekend, the Kuomintang won 15 of the 22 seats being contested, while the ruling Democratic Progressive Party landed six, with one going to an independent candidate. Ma said it was the island's Democratic Progressive Party that had erected obstacles to cross-Straits exchanges in the previous two years. We need more time to observe whether the expectations will be realized, he said. The sooner they remove the barriers, the sooner people from both sides can enjoy the benefits of cross-Straits exchanges, the spokesman added. He said the Democratic Progressive Party should conduct a deep review of what it has done, respect the strong will of the public in Taiwan to share the benefits of peaceful development, and return to the political foundation of the 1992 Consensus on the one-China policy. Newly elected Kuomintang county and city chiefs all publicly declared that they will uphold the 1992 Consensus and that they expect more cooperation with the mainland to stimulate economic development. Han Kuo-yu, the Kuomintang mayor-elect of Kaohsiung, one of Taiwan's biggest cities, said he will set up a special office to deal with cross-Straits affairs. Bao Chengke, deputy director of the cross-Straits Communication and Regional Development Institute at East China Normal University in Shanghai, said even if the island's authorities still imposed restrictions on mutual exchanges, the interaction between cities can still move forward. For those cities with correct stand like Kaohsiung, the cooperation that had stopped before will be continued and expanded now to benefit more people across the Straits, he added. Next month, a forum between Shanghai and Taipei will kick off in Taipei. A cross-Straits baseball event involving over 800 participants will be held in Shenzhen, Guangdong province. Contact the writer at [email protected] debossed silicone braceletspink breast cancer silicone wristbandsanimal bracelets rubber bandspolynesian wristband tattoo designsbeing human wristbands buy online
The Wuhan section of the Yangtze River. [Xinhua] WUHAN - Illegal scale sand dredging, a major threat to the ecology and navigation safety of waterways, has almost been wiped out in the Yangtze, China's longest river, thanks to an intensive crackdown last year, authorities said. A total of 1,622 illegal sand dredging vessels were dealt with in 2018 and 21 people were sentenced by courts according to law, said Wang Hui, a spokesperson for the Yangtze Water Resources Commission, which is based in Wuhan, capital of central Hubei Province. Last year, the commission carried out 49,000 patrols along the river and strengthened secret patrols and inquiries for 27 vulnerable stretches, said Wang. Sand dredging along the main stream of the Yangtze is in stable order due to the improved legal system and enforcement, said an official in charge of waterway sand dredging with the commission. Along with the Yangtze region's rapid economic growth over the past 30 years, illegal sand mining has been rampant and posed dire threats to the river's flood control, navigation safety, and ecology. China launched the Yangtze Economic Belt in 2014, aiming to build the region into a golden economic belt featuring more beautiful ecology and a more coordinated economy. The belt covers 11 provinces and municipalities, whose combined population and economy exceed 40 percent of the national total. cancer wristbands sayingsbulk order wristbandsdifferent rubber band braceletspink breast cancer silicone wristbandssilicone medical alert wristbands<%2fcenter>
