BEIJING -- Chinese mainland now has 77 functioning cross-Strait entrepreneurship bases and pilot sites, where young people from Taiwan can enjoy preferential policies to find jobs or start businesses on the mainland, a mainland spokesperson said on Friday.

Chen Binhua, a spokesperson with the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, made the remarks in response to a false report by a media outlet in Taiwan regarding the bases and pilot sites.

From 2015 to 2022, over 4,900 enterprises invested by youths from Taiwan and entrepreneurial teams of Taiwan youths had enjoyed services from or gone into operation in the bases, Chen said, adding that about 25,000 positions for internship, employment, or entrepreneurship had been provided for young people from Taiwan.

Exchange activities carried out by the entrepreneurship bases had attracted a total of 200,000 people to participate during the eight-year period, Chen said, noting that these bases and pilot sites include schools, business incubators, enterprises, social organizations, and other platforms.

The more rumors fabricated by Taiwan's Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) authorities and pro-DPP media outlets, the more exposed their sinister intentions of hindering exchanges and cooperation between young people on both sides of the Strait, Chen said.

He vowed to continue to support the construction of the entrepreneurship bases and pilot sites, create a better environment, and provide better services for youths from Taiwan to pursue their career on the mainland.