Brian Hioeby Brian Hioe
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Photo Credit: Chiang Wan-an/Facebook
THE TAIPEI-SHANGHAI FORUM took place earlier this week, as conducted by the mayoral administration of Chiang Wan-an.
As a city-based cross-strait exchange, the annual event grew significantly in prominence under the administration of preceding Taipei mayor Ko Wen-je. Ko made the cross-strait exchange into a significant annual event. Ko was likely aiming to bolster his record on cross-strait exchanges in preparation for his eventual presidential run, seeing as Taipei mayor is a political position traditionally seen as a stepping stone to the presidency.
Nevertheless, Ko’s city-based exchanges drew controversy because Taiwan was framed as China during them. In the course of the exchanges, Ko stated that there was one family across both sides of the Taiwan Strait, with a shared destiny. Even when pro-independence student demonstrators were attacked by pro-unification gangsters during the course of an event held on the campus of National Taiwan University, Ko defended the exchanges.
The Taipei-Shanghai forum held by Chiang has drawn similar controversy, with pro-independence demonstrators protesting events held as part of it on several occasions. This included, memorably, a protestor demonstrating while dressed as Winnie the Pooh–a way of mocking Chinese president Xi Jinping. 235 security personnel and a security team consisting of eight people were deployed during the exchange.
Most controversy centered around Chinese military exercises conducted before the forum. Critics of Chiang called attention to that he had previously vowed to suspend exchanges if China conducted such drilling. But Chiang did not follow up on his promise, instead stating that the exchanges were necessary to reduce cross-strait tensions.
Even so, Chiang did criticize China for its military activities in public comments in the course of the exchange. This illustrates how Chiang aims to differentiate his image from Ko–and likely has presidential ambitions in the future.
Photo credit: Chiang Wan-an/Facebook
For this aim, Chiang likely aims to bolster his credentials on maintaining cross-strait relations and being able to communicate with the Chinese government. At present, Chiang, Taichung mayor Lu Shiow-yen, and other KMT mayors are aiming to bolster international credentials in order to build for future presidential runs. Nevertheless, it was probably to avoid controversy that the scale of the forum was scaled down this year to only be two days.
During the visit, the two sides signed MOUs on panda preservation and medical cooperation, with a red panda exchange agreed on between the Taipei Zoo and Shanghai Zoo. The overall theme of the forum was “Smart governance, sustainable future” with a vision of “Better Cities, Better Cross-Strait Relations.”.
Shanghai vice mayor Hua Yuan represented the Chinese city during the exchange. Some hav suggested that this is a slight to Chiang, seeing as the mayor of Shanghai did not attend the exchange, and Hua is one of eight vice mayors.
Hua vowed to try and push for Chinese group tourism to Taipei, with Chinese group tourists currently restricted from traveling to Taiwan. If this occurs, China is likely to credit this to the lobbying of KMT politicians to bolster them in Taiwanese domestic politics.
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) approved the forum earlier this month, but denied the visas for eleven individuals of the 102-member Chinese delegation as a show of protest. This included the director of Shanghai Municipal Taiwan Affairs Office and nine Chinese reporters, with the MAC stating that the reporter presence was redundant.
Still, it was expected that the MAC would allow the forum to proceed, to avoid accusations by the KMT that it is engaged in political censorship. This is particularly the case after a questionable social media post by the DPP legislative caucus expressing approval of South Korean president Yoon Suk-yeol’s declaration of martial law, suggesting that the move was a justified response to North Korean infiltration of the legislature. Though the post was quickly deleted and replaced by a post criticizing the KMT for declaring martial law during Taiwan’s authoritarian period, this damage was done, and the KMT has since accused the DPP of a “martial law mentality” over efforts to regulate cross-strait exchanges.
Overall, the Shanghai-Taipei Forum was lower key and less large-scale than in previous years. But as no major controversies occurred and Chiang successfully carried out the forum, it can be understood as having been successful for him.