The ongoing 11th Straits Forum, which opened on June 15 in southeast China's Xiamen City, is expected to promote people-to-people exchanges and deepen cross-Strait integrated development.

According to the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, the 2019 forum has a total of 82 sponsors from both sides of the Taiwan Strait, compared to 54 during the inaugural event. More than 10,000 people are attending this edition of the annual forum.

Zhong Houtao, a research fellow at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, believes that this year features the highest grassroots participation, and highlights economic exchanges and cultural communication. "The Straits Forum has already become the biggest non-official platform between the two sides and it will continue to play an important role in cross-Strait relations in the future," he added.

Since its establishment, the Straits Forum has been primarily centered on economic exchanges and cultural integration. Recently, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) administration in Taiwan has stepped up efforts to obstruct and restrict normal cross-Strait exchanges, engaged in deliberate provocation and sabotage, and created disturbances.

"I don't think the DPP would have the guts to punish whoever took part in this forum, especially the Kuomintang of China (KMT) members," professor Youping Cheng from Taipei University stated, adding that "If they did that, I would have to say they're helping the KMT gain more popularity among Taiwan voters."

Fear, anxiety and insecurity caused the DPP to obstruct the forum, he noted. They realize that, after witnessing a decade of exchanges in such kind of non-political forum, people have been becoming more integrated. They are merged together and coming to realize that they are actually both from the same family, he said.

"They would like to cut off all forms of communication and exchanges across the Strait," professor Youping stated. "I have to say the more successful this forum becomes, the more people will come to realize that a lot of the things that the DPP tells them are actually lies, outright lies."

The Chinese mainland has made great efforts to share its development opportunities with Taiwan. Last year, 31 preferential policies were rolled out to provide favorable opportunities for Taiwan compatriots to come to the mainland.

"I have been in Taiwan for quite a few times, I actually see that they really loved the shared culture of both sides. People actually started to value the potentials of both sides working together," He Jing, a lawyer at Anjie Law Firm pointed out. "Taiwan has a huge soft power and talents, especially in international trade."

He stressed that the huge economic engine of the Chinese mainland and the huge talents in Taiwan could together create huge potentials.

(If you want to contribute and have specific expertise, please contact us at opinions@cgtn.com.)