Taipei mayor calls for reduced tensions during rare visit of Chinese officials

TAIPEI – The mayor of Taiwan’s capital told visiting Chinese officials on Dec 17 he hoped for peace and wanted less of the “howls of ships and aircraft” around the island, saying dialogue trumps confrontation.

China, which views democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory,

sends warplanes and warships near the island on an almost daily basis

, and held a new round of mass military activities last week.

Addressing the annual Taipei Shanghai City Forum with Shanghai Vice-Mayor Hua Yuan in attendance, Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an used poetic language to say he wished for peace across the Taiwan Strait.

“More dialogue and less confrontation; more olive branches of peace and less sour grapes of conflict. More lights from fishing boats to adorn the sunset; less of the howls of ships and aircraft,” Mr Chiang said.

“I always say that the more tense and difficult the moment, the more we need to communicate,” he added.

China has continued to send warplanes and warships into the strait even with the forum taking place, with Taiwan's defence ministry saying on the morning of Dec 17 that it had detected 10 military aircraft and seven warships in the past 24 hours.

Mr Chiang is from Taiwan’s main opposition party, the Kuomintang, which traditionally favours close ties across the Taiwan Strait although it denies being pro-Beijing. He is widely considered a future presidential contender.

The forum, first held in 2010, is one of the few high level venues for talks between Chinese and Taiwanese officials after China cut off a regular dialogue mechanism with Taiwan’s central government in 2016 following the election of Ms Tsai Ing-wen as president.

Ms Tsai, and her successor Lai Ching-te, refuse to acknowledge Beijing’s position that both China and Taiwan are part of “one China”. Mr Lai, like Ms Tsai, says only Taiwan’s people can decide their future, rejecting Beijing’s sovereignty claims.

Mr Hua told the forum he hoped for closer practical cooperation.

“Compatriots on both sides of the Taiwan Strait have always been one family. We often come and go, getting closer and closer to each other,” he said.

Shanghai tour group trips to Taiwan will restart

, Mr Hua added, offering his own olive branch, given that China has yet to allow a full post-pandemic resumption of tourism to the island.

Taiwan’s China-policy making Mainland Affairs Council said on Dec 16 the government was showing goodwill by allowing the forum to take place even in the face of the “still serious situation across the Taiwan Strait”. REUTERS