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BEIJING, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- A total of 3.61 million Chinese mainland residents visited Taiwan in 2016, an annual decrease of 800,000, a mainland spokesman said Wednesday.
The number of mainland tourists to Taiwan has slipped 14.4 percent, the first drop in eight years, according to Ma Xiaoguang, spokesman with the State Council Taiwan Affairs Office, at a press conference.
By contrast, Ma said that a total of 5.73 million people from Taiwan had visited the mainland in 2016, an annual increase of 4.2 percent.
Ma said that changes in Taiwan's situation had resulted in different trends: mainland cross-Strait policies had become more attractive to Taiwan residents, whereas changes in Taiwan's polices had brought negative effects, making mainland tourists less willing to visit the island.
Ma said that over the last year, exchanges between people on the two sides had kept developing. He added that the two sides had conducted exchanges in more fields, and exchanges between young people and people from the grassroots had increased.
He pointed out that more young people from Taiwan had gone to the mainland to study or participate in internship programs.
Cross-Strait exchanges had improved the mutual understanding and affection between people on both sides and displayed the strong will of people on both sides to carry forward peaceful development of cross-Strait ties, he added.
The spokesman said the mainland would continue to support cross-Strait communication in the new year, creating more chances for cross-Strait exchanges and making efforts to tackle practical difficulties for Taiwan residents studying, working or living on the mainland.
He also denied claims of mainland interference in the exhange of people working in the entertainment industry.
