The budget for this year’s twin-city forum between Taipei and Shanghai would be frozen if China’s military aircraft and ships continue to patrol near Taiwan ahead of the event later this year, the Taipei City Council said on Monday.
Following six days of inter-party negotiations, the decision was made on Monday to budget about NT$1.3 million (US$46,903) for the annual event, on one condition.
The condition put forth by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus was that the budget should be frozen if the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) continues to send aircraft and vessels to areas around Taiwan prior to the event’s opening.
Photo: Cheng Ming-hsiang, Taipei Times
Taipei city councilors from the DPP and their Social Democratic Party counterpart, Councilor Miao Po-ya (苗博雅), initially said that the budget should be scrapped entirely, but Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and New Party councilors opposed the idea.
They eventually reached a consensus and agreed to attach the condition.
KMT Taipei City Councilor Wang Hsin-yi (王欣儀) said that the party’s caucus accepted the proposal with the condition, as the PLA’s patrols near Taiwan have caused resentment.
New Party convener Pan Hwai-tzong (潘懷宗) said that the twin-city forum should be held if cross-strait relations are good at the time, and canceled if they are not.
The council is reviewing the NT$174.532 billion in expenses and NT$171.997 billion in income that the Taipei City Government has budgeted for this year.
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday inaugurated the Danjiang Bridge across the Tamsui River in New Taipei City, saying that the structure would be an architectural icon and traffic artery for Taiwan. Feted as a major engineering achievement, the Danjiang Bridge is 920m long, 211m tall at the top of its pylon, and is the longest single-pylon asymmetric cable-stayed bridge in the world, the government’s Web site for the structure said. It was designed by late Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid. The structure, with a maximum deck of 70m, accommodates road and light rail traffic, and affords a 200m navigation channel for boats,
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