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Taipei Mayor and MAC Spar Over Blocked Shanghai Forum Guest

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Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an and the Mainland Affairs Council traded public jabs after Taiwan barred a Shanghai official from the December Twin City Forum.

Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an and Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) exchanged sharp public criticism this week after the central government refused to let senior Chinese officials enter Taiwan for the Shanghai-Taipei Twin City Forum. The event is scheduled for December.

The MAC on Tuesday turned away Li Xiaodong (李驍東), deputy director of the Shanghai Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO), marking the second straight year the council has blocked his entry. A year earlier, the MAC said TAO personnel would be kept out because of Beijing's ongoing antagonism toward Taiwan, pointing to Chinese steps aimed at what it labels "Taiwanese independence separatists" and to acts of transnational repression.

Speaking a day after the entry was denied, Chiang defended the gathering as a durable channel for exchanges between the two cities. He said his administration had always run it on a footing of equality, mutual respect, goodwill and shared interest. Relations across the Taiwan Strait, he argued, require more conversation rather than less, and he saw no justification for the government to curb straightforward contacts at the city level.

Chiang made those remarks one day after TAO spokeswoman Zhu Fenglian (朱鳳蓮) charged the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) with imposing unwarranted curbs on cross-strait ties and "going against the mainstream opinion of the island."

Liang dismisses the forum's value

At a regular briefing, MAC Deputy Minister and spokesman Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said the mayor raises the same complaint through the press every time Taipei stages the forum with Shanghai. He described the meeting as offering nothing toward easing tensions with China.

"The Twin City Forum is an event of no value when it comes to facilitating peace with China," Liang said. He added that the Taipei City Government "must stop imagining its relationship with Shanghai to be more important than it really is."

Liang said the TAO's own statements showed that Beijing would press ahead with provocative military drills near Taiwan whether or not the Taipei-Shanghai meeting took place. The forum, he stressed, falls under the same rules that govern every cross-strait activity organized by Taiwan's local authorities, and Taipei receives neither special favor nor extra penalties.

To underline that point, he cited other municipal-level contacts, including exchanges linking Nantou with Hangzhou and Miaoli with Hubei. None of those, he said, shifted Beijing's approach to Taiwan.

APEC and travel to China

Asked about footage of Chiang's wife, Jane Shih, describing herself as coming from "Chinese Taipei" during the APEC leaders' summit, Liang said the wording is the standard designation used within that body.

He noted that more than 300 Taiwanese officials, drawn from 25 government ministries, had traveled to China for the summit between December last year and Aug. 31 without any problems, and he said the council hoped that pattern would hold.

Naturalization figures released

Separately, the Ministry of the Interior (MOI) said that 400 foreign "high-level" professionals have obtained Republic of China (Taiwan) citizenship over the past decade, a total reached as officials loosened nationality requirements to draw skilled people from more fields.

The 400th such professional, who works in the electronics sector, received approval on Aug. 26, the ministry said. The MOI quoted the new citizen as calling Taiwan a front-runner in areas including semiconductors, electronics manufacturing, artificial intelligence and energy technology.

Warning over US arms sales

The disputes came against a backdrop of wider tension. China has cautioned that it could scrap a planned summit between the US and Chinese leaders should Washington sign off on fresh arms sales to Taiwan, Japan's Kyodo News reported, citing sources.

According to the report, US President Donald Trump, keen to point to diplomatic wins before the November midterm elections, attaches significant weight to meeting Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). As it lays the groundwork for Xi's planned trip, Beijing has repeated its stance that the Taiwan question is a "red line" in its dealings with Washington.

Twin City Forum, Chiang Wan-an, Mainland Affairs Council, Shanghai Taipei, cross-strait relations, Li Xiaodong, Taiwan Affairs Office, Liang Wen-chieh

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