Between June 25 and Oct. 31, judicial authorities in Taiwan and mainland China received a total of 4,199 requests to investigate and arrest criminals, according to Liu Te-shun, vice chairman of Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council (MAC).

While it will take time for the cooperation platform to function more effectively, Liu said, he noted that judicial authorities on both sides of the Taiwan Strait have achieved initial success in fighting crime by exposing a fraud ring and arresting 76 Taiwanese and more than 10 Chinese suspects earlier this month.

Taiwan has also requested Chinese authorities extradite Taiwanese nationals who have committed economic crimes in Taiwan, taken advantage of the judicial loopholes, and fled across the strait, Liu said.

The "Agreement on Joint Cross-Strait Crime-fighting and Mutual Judicial Assistance," between the two sides took effect on June 25.

It was reached on April 26 upon the conclusion of the third round of talks between Taiwan's Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) Chairman Chiang Ping-kun and mainland China's Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS) Chairman Chen Yunlin in Nanjing.

The two bodies negotiate for the two sides in the absence of formal government-to-government relations.

In addition to the agreement, the two representatives signed accords in which the two sides agreed to increase the number of direct flights and flight destinations between two sides, as well as to promote mainland Chinese investment in Taiwan.

On July 4, the first large group of Chinese tourists arrived in Taiwan, Liu said, adding that between July and October, Taiwan received a total of 513, 229 Chinese visitors and grossed some US$1.05 billion in foreign exchange from the tourist arrivals from China.

Among the over 500,000 tourists from China, only 15 cases of tourists gone missing or overstaying their visas have been reported, according to Liu.

(By Liu Cheng-ching and Lillian Lin)