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...
An online video conference to commemorate city-based cross-strait exchanges between Taipei and Shanghai was held late last month. City-based cross-strait exchanges have taken place under the auspices of Taipei mayor Ko Wen-je since 2016. The meeting was held on July 22nd, with proceedings on the Taipei side taking place at the Regent Taipei, while proceedings for the Shanghai side took place at the Shanghai International Convention Center...
Taipei mayor Ko Wen-je recently found himself embroiled in controversy during a trip to Shanghai, conducted as part of the city-based cross-straits exchanges with Shanghai that he has pushed for since he became Taipei mayor...
It seems highly likely that KMT city mayors will pursue a strategy of carrying out city-level exchanges with China going forward, a model originally pioneered by Taipei mayor Ko Wen-je that Kaohsiung mayor-elect Han Kuo-yu has also taken up. However, some DPP mayors may also be tempted to do the same, as observed in the example of Tainan mayor-elect Huang Wei-che expressing public interest in visiting China much like Ko or Han...
International views of 2018 local elections in Taiwan, unsurprisingly, have in many cases skewed towards the assessment that China may have been the ultimate victor in nine-in-one elections. The KMT is very likely to leverage on this fact in the near future, to try and push for a new round of efforts to facilitate exchanges with China by way of the city-based exchange model pioneered by Taipei mayor Ko Wen-je. This would be a means of circumventing the central authority of the Tsai administration...
