Brian Hioeby Brian Hioe
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Photo Credit: Chiang Wan-an/Facebook
TAIPEI MAYOR CHIANG WAN-AN traveled to Shanghai for the annual Twin Cities Forum last weekend. The event is held annually as a city-based exchange that takes place between Taipei and Shanghai, as sister cities.
The Twin Cities Forum is, however, increasingly politically fraught given threats by China directed at Taiwan. Chiang’s predecessor as Taipei mayor, Ko Wen-je of the TPP, also repeated the statement that the two sides of the Taiwan Strait are one family, with a common destiny, at each Twin Cities Forum.
Chiang’s attendance at this year’s Twin Cities Forum was downscaled to only attending part of one day’s activities. This was likely due to the optics of traveling to China shortly after a deadly knife attack in Taipei that left four dead, including the attacker. Chiang stated that he would be returning early to Taipei in order to oversee security preparations for the New Year’s fireworks, given fears of a copycat attack and online threats.
Though Chiang has avoided rhetoric that would draw controversy in the manner of Ko Wen-je at this and preceding Twin Cities Forums, in comments, Chiang called for dialogue and engagement instead of confrontation. Both at last year’s and this year’s Twin Cities Forum, Chiang studiously avoided naming China as the source of military threats directed at Taiwan.
Yet it is to be noted that Chiang has sought to position himself as a moderate. Again, apart from that Chiang avoided any framing of Taiwan as part of China in the manner of Ko, Chiang could have also gone on the attack against the DPP for provoking cross-strait tensions and accusing President Lai Ching-te of refusing to dialogue with China. Even if this is the implicit message of Chiang’s Chinese counterparts and Chinese state-run media has generally framed Chiang’s comments as part of this larger attack on the Lai administration, Chiang probably does not want to come off in the same light as deep Blue members of the KMT. Chiang, likewise, wished to avoid the rhetoric of Chinese counterparts as Shanghai mayor Gong Zheng, who called on compatriots on both sides of the Taiwan Strait to work toward the “rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.”
The theme of this year’s Twin Cities Forum was “technology transforms life.” As such, in Chiang’s comments, Chiang touted the use of technology to improve safety and social resilience in Taiwan, as evidenced in his mayoral administration’s response to the deadly stabbings. Chinese government officials, to this extent, touted AI as a possible venue of cooperation between Taiwan and China.
Even so, such comments are ironic. Taiwan fears losing the technological advantages in semiconductors that keep the world invested in Taiwan and deter China from attacking, seeing as China is itself dependent on Taiwanese semiconductors.
Likewise, the Chinese government uses advanced digital surveillance technologies as an intrusive means of monitoring and curbing dissent. Knife attacks, such as occurred in Taipei earlier in December, were previously used in Xinjiang as the pretext to build a technologically advanced surveillance state to monitor and imprison Uyghurs in detention camps.
Still, Chiang’s comments are not surprising. Chiang previously claimed that there was insufficient proof of Chinese wrongdoing in Xinjiang when turning down calls to boycott cotton from Xinjiang.
The KMT has continued with trips to China in a manner that circumvents the Lai administration, as observed with a recent trip to Xiamen by seven KMT legislators for a business forum. The KMT-controlled legislature has further blocked legislation that would require reporting travel to China 751 times in the last 1.5 years.
Though the KMT claims that such trips lower cross-strait tensions, Chinese drills still evidently occur targeting Taiwan. Just one day after Chiang’s trip to China, the People’s Liberation Army announced the start of drills practicing a blockade of Taiwan. Yet even if the actions of the Chinese military run counter to the KMT’s claims, one expects trips to China as Chiang’s to continue.