Top Chinese leaders have repeatedly offered to let Taiwan 'benefit more' in the signing of a proposed bilateral trade pact to be known as economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA). Such an offer is not new in China's bid to promote East Asian economic integration. It began to offer tariff concessions on 600 agricultural and fishery items from member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in 2004. The move, coupled with a promise to allow a large number of Chinese tourists to visit ASEAN countries, helped facilitate the inauguration of the 'ASEAN Plus One (China)' free trade area early this year. As many of Taiwan's people remain wary about the possible adverse impact of the proposed ECFA with China, Beijing needs to do more to substantiate its claim that the agreement will benefit Taiwan and contribute to the peaceful development of cross-strait ties. If China were to refrain from asking Taiwan to immediately lift its ban on 1,300 Chinese industrial items, Taiwan's people would be more convinced of its sincerity to work in concert with Taiwan for cross-strait ties to develop in a positive direction. Moreover, if China issues a public statement supporting Taiwan to negotiate FTAs with other countries after signing the cross-strait ECFA, it will truly be a case of making a concession to Taiwan. (March 14, 2010). 