The Chinese mainland has taken a series of measures to create new exchanges across the Taiwan Straits in 2005, indicating a new turn in the relations between the mainland and Taiwan, a symposium in Beijing was told on Thursday.

More than 30 scholars from Beijing's universities and research institutes attended the symposium on cross-Straits relations held by the National Taiwan Studies Society.

Xu Shiquan, vice president of the society, said that this year was of great importance to the development of cross-Straits relations. There were new developments beneficial to curbing the separatist activities of the "Taiwan independence" this year, and public opinion on Taiwan was favorable to peace and stability in cross-Straits relations.

Jiang Dianmin, honorary vice president of the National Taiwan Studies Society, said the mainland has made great achievements in laying a foundation for the healthy and steady development of cross-Straits relations in the future.

At the invitation of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, Kuomintang (KMT) Chairman Lien Chan and People First Party (PFP) Chairman James Soong visited the mainland one after the other this year.

Chairman of New Party Yok Mu-ming also visited the mainland to join celebrations of the 60th anniversary of China's victory in the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression.

All these visits have greatly increased the mainland society's understanding of the thoughts of its Taiwan compatriots and removed much misunderstanding among the Taiwan people about the mainland, said the experts.

However, the experts pointed out that pro-independence sentiment on Taiwan forces has not ceased to generate "secessionist activities", and combating "Taiwan independence" will remain an important task.