The county chiefs of Kinmen and Penghu have decided to drop out of the Asia-Pacific Cities Summit for this year in order to protest the Chinese government's tactics in degrading Taiwan's status through the arrangements of the summit, the Vice Chairman of the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) You Ying-lung (
The summit, scheduled to be hosted by the city of Chongqing from Oct. 11 to 14, has been an important stage for promoting exchanges and cooperation amongst cities, governments and businesses in the Asia-Pacific region since 1996.
This year, Taipei and Taichung cities as well as Taoyuan County will have representatives present, after obtaining the approval of the MAC, while Kinmen and Penghu counties decided to withdraw their applications.
"The two counties have recalled their applications to express their discontent with the Chinese government's intention to downgrade the country's status," You said.
The Chinese government initially listed the attending cities of this year's summit based on their geographic location, which puts Taiwan's cities in the same group as Hong Kong and Macau, You said.
Other cities are listed in six groups -- Asia, Europe, Africa, America and Oceania -- according to geographic location, and overseas institutions are included.
As Hong Kong and Macau are both part of China, MAC believes that China's motive for having such an arrangement was to give other countries the impression that Taiwan is part of China.
"It is the Chinese government's deliberate arrangement as it is different from the arrangement that other hosts have used in the past, who have listed the attendants alphabetically," he said.
After the Ministry of Foreign Affairs protested to the secretary of the Asia-Pacific Cities Summit, the Chinese government has changed the arrangement back to the summit's traditional convention, You said.
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