The Taipei City Government yesterday said there were no plans for Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) to meet China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) Director Song Tao (宋濤) during Chiang’s visit to Shanghai.
Chiang, who departs today for Shanghai, is to attend the Taipei-Shanghai Twin-City Forum, where he is to meet Shanghai Mayor Gong Zheng (龔正). Some have said that he would also meet with Song.
The forum is being held in-person for the first time since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Chiang is to lead a delegation of about 150 people, including 13 city councilors, to the forum.
Photo: Taipei Times file
At a news conference on youth suicide awareness and prevention at the Taipei City Hall yesterday morning, Chiang did not answer a question about whether he would meet with Song. He instead smiled and said “thank you.”
Taipei City Government spokesperson Yin Wei (殷瑋) said he did not know where that information came from, “but we currently do not know about it, and there is no such plan.”
According to an itinerary released last week, Chiang is to arrive in Shanghai today, visit Yangshan Deep-Water Port and Shanghai Laogang Ecological Base in the afternoon, attend a banquet hosted by the Shanghai Municipal People’s Government in the evening and visit a night market near Shanghai’s City God Temple.
The forum, themed “new trend, new development,” is to begin tomorrow. Chiang is expected to sign three memorandums of understanding on carbon reduction and sustainability, conferences and exhibitions, and badminton, followed by a visit to the Shanghai Library and the Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Center. In the evening, he is to attend a banquet hosted by the Taipei City Government.
On Thursday, Chiang is to ride one of Shanghai’s shared bicycles on a trip with young Taiwanese in the city, visit the Shanghai Environment and Energy Exchange, and attend a talk with Taiwanese businesspeople in Shanghai. He is to discuss issues concerning infant daycare, parklets, community recreational centers, smart continuing care service centers and household waste disposal stations.
The delegation is to return to Taipei that evening.
Yin said that the Taipei-Shanghai Twin-City Forum is an important channel of communication and exchange platform between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait.
The forum is especially important amid strained tensions across the Strait, as Taipei residents and Taiwanese hope the nation can push forward toward cross-strait peace, he said.
Asked if Typhoon Saola might affect Chiang’s visit to Shanghai, Yin said that the mayor has asked the city government’s departments to make preparations for the storm.
The city government would also monitor the situation closely and respond accordingly, he added.
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