Taipei Deputy Mayor Teng Chia-ji (鄧家基) said Tuesday at the opening of the annual Taipei-Shanghi forum that his city keeps pace with worldwide standards of public order and has a vibrant democratic system.
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After the forum, the two cities signed memorandums on cooperation between the Taipei Film Festival and the Shanghai International Film Festival, between Taipei’s Wenshan District and Shanghai’s Songjiang District, and on city marathon events.
Sha, who heads the visiting delegation in place of Shanghai Mayor Yang Xiong, made no comment to reporters but waved to supporters. The students’ sports festival marked the opening of the 2016 Taipei-Shanghai City Forum.
Sha said the Shanghai government will do its best to support events that are conducive to the peaceful development of cross-Strait ties and can increase the benefits of people on both sides of the Strait.
The 2016 forum will focus on exchanges in medical and health care services, smart cities, culture, transportation and youth.
In his 25-minute speech at the opening of the forum, Mr Sha reiterated Beijing’s stand that the peaceful development of cross-strait ties over the past eight years was based on both sides’ adherence to the 1992 Consensus, a tacit agreement between the two sides that there is one China, with each side having its own interpretation of what “one China” means. Statistics show there are more than 13,000 enterprises in Shanghai with investment from Taiwan business people, and more than 1,000 Taiwanese students study in the city every year.
Protesters had also rallied at an airport and other locations Sha visited Monday, shouting slogans against communism and for independence for Taiwan.
China has noted that Taipei Mayor Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) recognizes that stance, said Sha, the first senior Chinese official to visit Taiwan since Tsai took office. He said one of the main assignments of the visit is to learn of the Taipei’s experience in this regard.
“I, with the delegation I lead, have come here to cement the friendship between the two cities, promote mutual understanding and deepen the emotional bond between residents of the two cities”, he said.
Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen said on Saturday that unofficial communication channels with China are very much intact despite Beijing suspending official communication channels with the island nation earlier this year, Reuters reported.
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The Chinese mainland and Taiwan have suspended the regular mechanism between cross-Strait affairs departments.
