Forging bonds across the straits

Helpful new measures

Yang also found her identity as a Taiwan student brought her some inconvenience when she was job hunting during the nationwide campus recruitment season last autumn.

"Most of the HR personnel I talked to seemed confused about how to recruit staff from Taiwan, or flinched at the complexities of the procedures needed to hire me," says Yang, who later signed with a Sino-foreign joint venture familiar with how to hire employees outside the Chinese mainland.

Yang now hopes to be treated equally as Chinese mainland residents following the introduction of 31 new measures issued by the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council on Feb 28, aimed at promoting cross-Straits economic and cultural exchanges and cooperation.

The measures cover a wide range of fields, including taxation, entrepreneurship, employment, education and healthcare.

Chen Wen-cheng, 29, a doctorate candidate at Beijing Sport University, says the measures will allow him to apply for projects in the national key research and development plan.