More popular than the U.S.
Top-tier universities in the Chinese mainland including Peking University and Tsinghua University have also become much more attractive to Taiwanese youth than their own local universities.
"As a destination for graduate school, the Chinese mainland is now more popular than the U.S., due to cheaper tuition, better education quality, no language barriers and a shared culture background," Luo told the Global Times.
A growing number of Taiwan students with master's degrees from American "ivy league" universities have also been applying for PhD studies at Chinese mainland universities. They do so not only for the degree itself, but to build up important social connections within their field, which can better prepare them for a future career in the mainland, according to Zheng.
According to the most up-to-date data from Taiwan's own "ministry of education," there are 21,127 students from Taiwan pursuing an education in the U.S. as of April 2017, and 9,642 Taiwanese students studying in Japan.
"In 2016, there were 10,823 students from Taiwan studying in the mainland," which is higher than Japan and getting closer to the number in the U.S., Zhao Lingshan, vice director of the Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan affairs office under China's ministry of education, told Xinhua News Agency in April.
"Taiwanese scholars hired by Chinese mainland universities are also receiving equal treatment. In the past, they were not able to apply to China's National Social Science Fund for their projects, but now this has been changed," Luo said.
Westbound, not Southbound
Apart from the Chinese mainland's increasingly generous policies, another reason cited by many Taiwanese youth for abandoning Taiwan is their growing collective realization that the DPP's anti-mainland policies have been utterly futile.
According to a new survey released by a Taiwan-based newspaper, United Daily News, approximately 56 percent are dissatisfied with Taiwan's leader Tsai Ing-wen and her cross-Straits policy. The same survey said that 40 percent hold a positive image of the Chinese mainland, an impressive 5-percent increase from last year and an eight-year peak.
More importantly, 40 percent said they were willing to work in the Chinese mainland, a 9-percent increase from last year. Those under 30 years old expressed an even higher willingness to leave Taiwan for the mainland, at 53 percent. Taiwanese parents willing to send their children to the mainland for an education reached an astonishing 38 percent, a 5 percent increase from 2016.
"Hilariously, DPP's poor governance has 'educated' Taiwan's people for us," Yu from the University of International Relations laughed.
"After taking office, the DPP ruined the KMT's cross-Straits policy by pushing separatist policies, which in turn received a tougher response from the Chinese mainland. Taiwanese people quickly learned that the DPP's pro-independence stance did nothing to boost their economy, and it even worsened their situation," Yu told the Global Times.
Tsai's new administration pushed its own economic strategy, called "the New Southbound Policy," which was designed to strengthen the island's trade and economic ties with member countries in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), New Zealand and Australia.
The policy is considered a follow-up to former Taiwanese leader Chen Shui-bian's proposal to reduce Taiwan's reliance on the mainland. "We totally have no confidence in this policy, because throughout history, Taiwan's southbound strategies have always failed," Luo from Tsinghua said.
When DPP officials were asked about the details of the New Southbound Policy, they offered no specific plans or policies. "It was just based on an ideology, and it did not respect any economic principals," Zheng said, adding that abandoning the Chinese mainland's huge market was "not a wise decision at all."
"Therefore, more Taiwanese youth have been resisting DPP's Southbound Policy and following their own 'Westbound (going to the mainland) Policy,'" Luo said.
Equal treatment
Although the Chinese mainland offers an optimal environment for Taiwanese students, both Luo and Zheng told the Global Times that they hope for more equal treatment in the mainland.
For instance, the Mainland Travel Permit for Taiwan residents (MTP) that they are issued cannot be used as a residents' identity card in the Chinese mainland, which restricts their ability to book hotels, use local banking service, participate in e-commerce or even use ticket machines at local train stations.
This has caused some inconvenience to new Taiwanese arrivals, who said that they feel like the mainland still treats them as "foreign guests rather than family."
Ma Xiaoguang, a spokesman for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, said at a June press conference that their office was fully aware of the problem with the MTP. "We are actively researching a solution," he said.
Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, said during his work report to the 19th CPC National Congress that, "We will ensure that, over time, people from Taiwan will enjoy the same treatment as local people when they pursue their studies, start businesses, seek jobs or live on the mainland, thus improving the well-being of Taiwan compatriots."
"We will encourage people from both sides to work together to promote Chinese culture and forge closer bonds between them," Xi said.
For both Luo and Zheng, this was the most impressive part of Xi's report, who hope it can be turned into specific policies as soon as possible. "It further encourages us to stay in the mainland and help attract more people from Taiwan as well," they said.
