The annual Taipei-Shanghai Twin Cities Forum is intended to foster cooperation on the city-to-city level but it also has implications for cross-strait relations as a whole since contact between Taiwan and China at the national level was cut off in 2016.
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00:00Shanghai officials were in Taipei on Tuesday for a forum held annually between the two cities.
00:05For Taipei, it's the first time the Twin Cities Forum has been held in person since 2018 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
00:13It's supposed to focus solely on city-to-city cooperation,
00:16but since contact between Taiwan and China at the national level was cut off in 2016,
00:21this forum has become one of only a few remaining cross-strait exchanges.
00:26And while speeches from Taipei Mayor Jiang Wan'an and Shanghai Vice Mayor Hua Yuan
00:30focused largely on city-level exchanges, both also referenced cross-strait relations as a whole.
00:36Hua described the two sides of the Taiwan Strait as one family,
00:40language that reflects Beijing's desire for cross-strait unification.
00:56Here, Jiang seems to reference Chinese military activity around Taiwan,
01:17which has increased in recent years as China has said it will use force if necessary to bring Taiwan under its control.
01:24In another significant moment, Hua said he hopes to allow tour groups from Shanghai to come to Taiwan,
01:30notable given that Chinese tourists are currently only allowed to visit Taiwan's outlying Jinmen and Matsu Islands.
01:47Reflecting the sensitivity of cross-strait relations,
01:49groups who support Taiwan's unification with China and those advocating for Taiwan's independence
01:54showed up when Hua arrived in Taipei on Monday.
01:57Protesters showed up for Tuesday's forum, too, with one dressed as Winnie the Pooh.
02:02The character's supposed resemblance to Xi Jinping has become an international meme
02:07and led to the honey-loving bear effectively being banned in China.
02:11The forum itself was also not without controversy,
02:14with 10 members of China's planned delegation barred from entering Taiwan by the government's Mainland Affairs Council.
02:20On the city level, the two sides signed two memorandums of understanding,
02:24agreements to work together on smart health care and the conservation of red pandas.
02:29But as tensions continue across the strait,
02:31many are focused more on the forum's political implications at the national level rather than the local.
02:37Justin Wu, Chris Gorin, and Keynes Cuaranta for Taiwan Plus.
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