China comes out contra to offered Vancouver friendship town in Taiwan

Key points:

Vancouver corporation is expecting to construct an arts and culture bridge to Kaohsiung.
The Consulate-General of the People’s Republic of China in Vancouver states it is strongly against Vancouver having a friendship city partnership with towns in Taiwan.

China opposing friendship city partnership proposal:

Charlie Wu’s wish to begin an art and cultural relationship with the Taiwanese town of Kaohsiung came one step nearer to reality when he heard about Vancouver latest “Friendship City Program.”

This Sep, the Vancouver town council issued a motion to start the program, granting it to partner with towns worldwide to construct cultural and business relationships.

Applications to add a new relationship town are hoped from the non-profit group corporations like Wu’s Asian-Canadian Special Events Association, known for running massive events like Taiwan Fest in Vancouver.

“There’s a lot of opportunities for our art community to leverage on. Kaohsiung has become sort of an art and cultural Mecca in Asia or Southeast Asia,” said Wu. Source – cbc.ca

But The Chinese Consulate in Vancouver issued a statement this week objecting to the friendship town scheme, saying, “We … firmly oppose any official ties in any form between the city of Vancouver and cities in the Taiwan region.”

The island nation has come under expanding military and political force to acquire Beijing’s regulation.

China states Taiwan as part of its national region, but the island has been self-ruled since it divided from China in 1949 after a long civil war.

The Consulate’s reply calls on the international group to determine the “One China” principle, which holds on there is only one China and Taiwan is part of its control, according to Josephine Chiu-Duke, the associate professor of Asian Studies at the University of British Columbia.

“I felt a little bit surprised, because this is quite normal for cities to exchange — cultural exchange, academic exchange, and so on,” said Chiu-Duke.

“Perhaps they wanted to issue certain kinds of strong statements with regard to their power over certain areas in Asia and particularly in Taiwan, to the international community.”