China sweetens overtures to Taiwan

BEIJING, May 13 (UPI) -- China's Communist Party department dealing with Taiwan announced several new inducements Friday to lure the breakaway island back to the mainland.

Chen Yunlin, director of the Central Committee's Taiwan Work Office pledged to make it easier for Taiwanese to work, study and travel in China.

Mainland authorities are offering to expand and simplify entry and exit procedures, lower tuition for Taiwanese at Chinese universities as well as ease regulations for islanders working in China.

Xinhua described the offer as "another gesture of affinity easing tensions across the Taiwan Straits," following promises to present a pair of giant pandas, an end to the ban against mainland residents traveling to the island and a promise to the open mainland markets wider to Taiwan's farm products.

The announcement came at the end of the nine-day trip to China by James Soong, chairman of the People First Party, Taiwan's second largest opposition party.

Taiwan's democratically elected president Chen Shui-bian rejected the "One China, Two Sides" formula Soong reached Thursday with Chinese President Hu Jintao.