MAC, Taipei mayor clash over Twin City Forum
UNIMPORTANT? While Chiang Wan-an called for more cross strait dialogue, the MAC said that the forum is of ‘no value when it comes to facilitating peace with China’
By Chen Yu-fu and Jonathan Chin / Staff reporter, with staff writer
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) and Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) yesterday traded barbs after the central government barred senior Chinese officials from entering Taiwan to attend the Shanghai-Taipei Twin City Forum.
The MAC on Tuesday denied entry to Shanghai Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) Deputy Director Li Xiaodong (李驍東) for the second time in as many years. The forum is planned for December.
Last year, the MAC said that TAO officials would not be allowed in Taiwan due to China’s continued hostility toward the nation, as evidenced by Beijing’s measures targeting “Taiwanese independence separatists” and use of transnational repression.
Mainland Affairs Council Deputy Minister Liang Wen-chieh speaks at a news conference in Taipei yesterday.
Photo: Chen Yu-fu, Taipei Times
Chiang the following day said that the forum is a long-time institution for dialogue between Taipei and Shanghai, which his administration has always conducted under the conditions of equality and mutual respect, goodwill and interests.
The cross strait issue calls for more dialogue, not less, and the government has no reason to place limits on simple municipal-level exchanges, he said.
Chiang’s comments came a day after TAO spokeswoman Zhu Fenglian (朱鳳蓮) accused the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) regime of placing unreasonable restrictions on cross-strait exchanges and “going against the mainstream opinion of the island.”
At a routine news conference yesterday, MAC Deputy Minister and spokesman Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said that Chiang reiterates the issue in the media every time his administration holds the forum with Shanghai.
“The Twin City Forum is an event of no value when it comes to facilitating peace with China,” he said.
“The Taipei City Government must stop imagining its relationship with Shanghai to be more important than it really is,” he added.
The TAO’s statements make it plain that Beijing would continue to conduct provocative military exercises around Taiwan regardless of whether there is a Taipei-Shanghai forum, Liang said.
The forum is subject to the same regulations that apply to all cross-strait exchanges conducted by Taiwan’s local governments, with Taipei receiving no preferential or unfavorable treatment, he said.
Taiwan has seen many local-level cross strait exchanges, including forums involving Nantou and Hangzhou, as well as Miaoli and Hubei, which had no impact on Beijing’s policy toward Taiwan, Liang said.
Asked to comment on a video showing Chiang’s wife, Jane Shih (石舫?), introducing herself as from “Chinese Taipei” at the APEC leaders’ summit, Liang said the phrasing is standard for that organization.
More than 300 Taiwanese officials from 25 government ministries have attended the summit in China from December last year to Aug. 31 without incident, a trend the council hopes would continue, he said.
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