To promote cross-strait academic and legal exchanges, China recently launched a number of measures benefiting Taiwan. Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, People's Republic of China, has announced that various kinds of projects supported by the China National Social Science Fund will be open for application to Taiwanese researchers working in the higher education and research institutions in China with the same kind of treatment as mainland Chinese residents. In the legal aspect, measures such as easing the geographical scope of the establishment of representative offices by Taiwanese law firms in China have been introduced.

The website of Taiwan Affairs Office has announced that the application scope of the China National Social Science Fund includes project categories such as major projects, annual projects, youth projects, post-funded projects, Chinese academic translation projects, western projects, national philosophy and social science results library, etc., covering 26 first-level disciplines. Taiwanese researchers working in China if meeting certain eligibility may apply.

At the same time, the Ministry of Justice of the People's Republic of China has further opened cross-strait legal service cooperation by launching three measures. First, the geographical scope of the establishment of representative offices by Taiwanese law firms in China has been expanded from the current Fuzhou City and Xiamen City in Fujian Province to the entire province of Fujian, Shanghai City, Jiangsu Province, Zhejiang Province and Guangdong Province.

Second, the Taiwanese law firms which have already established representative offices in China, and the representative offices have already been set up for three years, are allowed to form joint ventures with mainland Chinese law firms in Fujian Province, Shanghai City, Jiangsu Province, Zhejiang Province and Guangdong Province where the representative offices are located.

Third, the mainland Chinese law firms located in Fujian Province, Shanghai City, Jiangsu Province and Guangdong Province are allowed to hire lawyers licensed in Taiwan to be legal advisors in the law firms to provide consulting services on Taiwan laws.

In addition, according to the website of the Civil Aviation Administration of China, the civil aviation self-service equipment of China have been upgraded since the end of 2016. Currently, approximately 800 self-service ticket equipment in various airports of China have already supported manually entering the numbers of Mainland Travel Permit for Taiwan Residents (MTPTR) for purchasing tickets. Some of the self-service equipment in airports in Fuzhou, Shanghai Hongqiao and Shanghai Pudong are already capable of automatically identify MTPTRs. It is expected that by the end of 2017, the hardware and software upgrade or replacement work for about 1,700 self-service equipment in civil airports of China will be able to be completed, which will create more convenient conditions and environment for cross-strait exchanges.