Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an has cut short his planned visit to a joint forum in Shanghai to better focus on security concerns following a deadly stabbing incident in the city last week.
Originally scheduled to attend the Shanghai-Taipei City Forum on Saturday and Sunday, Chiang will now only take part in the main forum on Sunday morning before returning to Taipei to oversee heightened security operations, according to a press release from the municipal government on Tuesday.
The Shanghai-Taipei City Forum has been held annually since 2010 and remains one of the few events attended by officials from both sides of the Taiwan Strait.
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Chiang said that ensuring the safety of citizens remained the “top priority”.
“To ensure stability in Taipei and reassure the public, while also balancing the ongoing municipal exchanges through the Taipei-Shanghai City Forum, which has been held for 15 years, he has decided to shorten his personal trip,” the notice said.
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Speaking to the press on Wednesday, Chiang reaffirmed that the core spirit of the joint forum was “good cities, good cross-strait relations”, with the goal of continuing municipal exchanges between Taipei and Shanghai to achieve tangible outcomes in cooperation.