00:00One of the last remaining official channels linking Taiwan and China is meeting again,
00:05but there's been some last-minute changes.
00:08Taipei's mayor says he's cutting his visit to Shanghai for the Twin Cities Forum short,
00:13as he handles the aftermath of a knife attack that killed multiple people in Taipei.
00:30It's just the latest hiccup in this year's forum,
00:37where officials from both sides meet to discuss city-level issues and agree on ways to work together.
00:44It's been delayed for months after the two sides failed to prepare agreements they planned to sign.
00:49These movements may seem minor, but they matter,
00:53especially at a time of heightened cross-strait tensions,
00:55when official communication between Taiwan and China at the national level has been completely cut off for years,
01:02leaving this as one of the few remaining channels between the two sides.
01:07This isn't a forum for country-to-country issues,
01:10and Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council, which handles relations with China,
01:14says it hopes city officials can stick to discussing local issues while they're there.
01:20At the same time, the council said if Mayor Jiang wants to bring up Chinese military incursions,
01:24incursions he can.
01:26The Chinese military attack has almost become a normal state.
01:30And this has caused a lot of a lot ofๅๆ to Taiwan.
01:35If the chairman of the chairman to Shanghai can express the words,
01:41or if he wants to express the words,
01:43I think this will be the welcome of the Taiwanese people.
01:47These kinds of national-level issues are what many will be watching most closely for,
01:52including which Chinese officials Mayor Jiang meets while he's there.
01:56But with a shorter visit, there may be less room to address all the issues on the table.
02:02Justin Wu and Keynes-Kuranta for Taiwan Plus.
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