The 15th Straits Forum, the biggest in-person people-to-people exchange event across the Taiwan Straits since the COVID-19 pandemic, has attracted more than 5,000 attendees from the island, including young people who are now working, studying and living in the mainland, as well as those who are looking forward to opportunities in the mainland despite the cross-Straits tensions caused by the secessionist Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and collusion between the Taiwan authorities and Washington.