00:00Just days before an annual meeting between the city governments of Shanghai and Taipei was set to begin,
00:06Taipei City officials suddenly announced it will be postponed.
00:10They say they need more preparation time.
00:13The agreements they were supposed to sign at the forum are not ready, and some agencies have yet to weigh in.
00:30But the announcement appears to have taken Taiwan's central government by surprise.
00:36The Mainland Affairs Council, which manages relations with China, says it thought a consensus had already been reached.
01:00The annual meeting, called the Twin Cities Forum, is a significant cross-trade exchange that began in 2010.
01:10It's one of few remaining platforms for government-to-government communication between China and Taiwan at any level,
01:16since Beijing cut off all contact with Taiwan's central government in 2016.
01:22At the forum, the two sides usually discuss city-level issues and sign cooperation agreements on things like the environment,
01:29tourism, and transportation.
01:31With the announcement of the event's sudden suspension, there's been some speculation around the reason.
01:37Members of Taiwan's main opposition party, the Kuomintang, which traditionally has closer ties to Beijing,
01:43have accused the central government of obstructing the forum.
01:45But one analyst says that's unlikely, as the Mainland Affairs Council was willing to approve the trip,
02:04and the Taipei City government did not appear to try to shift the blame onto them.
02:07At the same time, the analyst said, it's also unlikely that the suspension was solely due to inadequate preparation,
02:15because this event happens every year, so planning should be relatively routine.
02:19So it's difficult to know what exactly prompted this decision,
02:47but it does come amid heightened cross-strait tensions,
02:50meaning any events between the two sides come under increased scrutiny.
02:54Taipei City officials also have not said when the event might eventually take place.
02:58Those details appear to be still in the works.
03:01Chris Ma and Cadence Quaranta for Taiwan Plus.
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