Officials from Shanghai have been in Taipei for the annual Twin Cities Forum intended to foster communication between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait. TaiwanPlus spoke to Kwei-Bo Huang, professor of diplomacy at National Chengchi University, to understand the significance of this forum.
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00:00Since the suspending of diplomatic contact between China and Taiwan in 2016,
00:04has this forum taken on a special significance?
00:08Ideally or theoretically, this Taipei-Shanghai Twin Cities Forum is for city governance issues
00:16only. But nowadays, I think some people would expect this Twin Cities Forum to at least touch
00:27slightly upon those very sensitive political issues. Taipei is the most important city in
00:33Taiwan. Shanghai is the most advanced city on the mainland. So it is meaningful for these two cities
00:42to exchange some ideas, to observe each other's policies, and so on. But because of the special
00:51status of these two cities, some people would give some political connotations or implications
00:58to this Twin Cities Forum. And to my best knowledge, I think the two cities' mayors
01:07or governments have been willing to be seen as the so-called special envoy to
01:17help cross-strait relations become more stabilized or to become better.
01:24And how much practical benefit does this forum have in reality? Is it achieving a whole lot?
01:29This Twin Cities Forum is facilitating some reciprocal exchanges between Taipei and Shanghai.
01:36So like this year, in terms of smart medical care, I personally think in this regard,
01:43Shanghai is a little bit more advanced than Taipei. So, you know, in the following year,
01:52I think the Taipei City government delegations are going to visit Shanghai to observe
01:58what Shanghai has done in order to improve its smart medical care system for its own citizens.
02:05It's not that politically or economically important. I think it's a good way to see
02:10this kind of bilateral cooperation between Shanghai and Taipei.