A Chinese mainland official Wednesday urged Taiwan to lift the ban on the operations of reporters from the mainland's Xinhua News Agency and People's Daily on the island as quickly as possible.

"If the Taiwan side is sincere in promoting media exchanges, the most immediate thing it should do is to lift the ban on the operations of Xinhua and People's Daily reporters," said Li Weiyi, spokesman of the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, at a routine press conference.

Two months have passed since the Taiwan authorities ordered the suspension of the operations of reporters from the two major mainland media organizations with no sound reasons. The practice has come under criticism from media organizations on both sides of the Taiwan Straits, and some even called it an action of "turning back the clock in cross-Straits exchanges."

"If we review the development of cross-Straits media exchanges, we can see clearly that the mainland has been consistently supported such exchanges," Li said, adding that however, the Taiwan side has taken a passive attitude in this process and even created obstacles. 

(Xinhua News Agency June 15, 2005)