Taiwan twin town proposal discussed by Oxford City Council

A motion discussed by the city council last night asked for councillors to consider twinning with a locality on the island of Taiwan as Oxford’s first sister city in East Asia.

Taiwan, officially known at the Republic of China, is an island nation state in the Pacific Ocean, separated from mainland China by the Taiwan Strait.

China claims sovereignty over Taiwan, but Taiwan maintains its own democratically elected government.

The proposal by Lib Dem councillor Stephen Goddard praised Taiwan’s response to coronavirus, where there have only been seven deaths, and its cultural and social liberalism.

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It said that a ‘municipality-to-municipality relationship is separate from the UK’s official diplomatic position of recognising the People’s Republic of China and avoiding dealing with the Taiwan authorities on a government to government basis’.

And it added that Oxford is ‘grateful for the friendship of people’ from China, who are visitors, students and residents of the city.

Liz Wade, who seconded the proposal, said that twinning with a city in Taiwan would be an ‘economic opportunity’ for Oxford because of the nation’s technology and sciences industries.

She said: “Coronavirus means times will be tough as it will in the rest of the UK. We need to be on the lookout for international collaborations which can help us build jobs locally.”

But Labour councillor Mary Clarkson said previous twin towns has risen out of grassroots movements before being taken up by the council.

Ms Clarkson said: “We need to find a town we have natural links with and explore that as a grassroots level.”

Oxford councillors with a sign on Abingdon Road which shows the city's twin towns

Other councillors backed a change to the proposal Ms Clarkson suggested, which meant that grassroots support would be built up first before seeking a formal twinning arrangement with a city in Taiwan.

The city’s Green Lord Mayor Craig Simmons said he was concerned about the carbon footprint that flying to a new twin town in East Asia could create.

By Lib Dem Mr Goddard said the pandemic had shown friendships could be maintained by video calls and other electronic communication.

The council voted in favour of exploring a twinning link with Taiwan, but only after building up a grassroots relationship.

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The current state of Taiwan originated in 1949 after Nationalist refugees from mainland China fled there after losing the Chinese Civil War to the communists.

As China’s influence has grown, other countries have cut diplomatic ties with the democratic Taiwan, and now only a small number of nations still officially recognise Taiwan as being a separate state.

The move by Oxford City Council comes as China is facing international criticism for humanitarian and security problems.

Oxford City Council has twinned with cities in geopolitically difficult positions before.

Last year it twinned with the city of Ramallah in the West Bank.

The council then unveiled a boundary sign on Abingdon Road which read that Ramallah was in Palestine.

While a majority of UN member states recognise Palestine as a separate state from neighbouring Israel, some do not.

At the time, the city council said it hoped its twinning with Ramallah would 'flourish, encourage understanding and contribute, if only in a small way, to peace and justice in the region'.

Oxford is currently twinned with eight other cities.

These include Bonn in Germany, Grenoble in France, Leiden in the Netherlands, Padua in Italy, Wrocław in Poland, Perm in Russia, Leon in Nicaragua, and Ramallah in the Palestinian West Bank.