Chapter 4 The Achievements and Challenges of City Diplomacy in
4.1.1 Overview of Sister Cities in NTC
The Achievements and Challenges of City Diplomacy in NTC
4.1 Sister Cities in NTC
4.1.1 Overview of Sister Cities in NTC
NTC has nine sister cities (including friendship cities) at the city level and thirty nine at the district (the former county-controlled city/township) level. Prior to the city’s reorganization on December 25th, 2010, there were eight sister city agreements concluded by “Taipei County”. NTC partnered with its first sister city, Richland County, Ohio, in 1988, and the other seven quickly followed. By 2006, NTC had eight international sister cities: Richland County, Ohio, the U.S.; Starnberg Kreis, Bavaria, Germany; Miami-Dade County, Florida, the U.S.; City of Cincinnati, Ohio, the U.S;
County of Los Angeles, California, the U.S.; Province of Rizal, Philippines; County of Baltimore, Maryland, the U.S.; County of Harris, Texas, the U.S. (see Table 4-1)
Table 4-1: Sister Cities of NTC
Sister City Country Date of Agreement Signing Richland County, Ohio The U.S. Jan. 23, 1985
Starnberg Kreis, Bavaria Germany Sep. 27,1985 Miami-Dade County, Province of Rizal Philippines Oct. 27, 2005 County of Baltimore,
Maryland
The U.S. Jan. 27, 2006 City and County of San
Francisco, California
The U.S. August 9, 2013
Source: Secretariat of NTC Government
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After the change of administrative status to special municipality, NTC has established one friendship city tie with San Francisco, the U.S. Mayor Eric Chu of NTC and Mayor Edwin M. Lee of San Francisco signed a Friendship City Memorandum of Understanding on August 9, 2013 for promoting mutually benefit of the two communities by exploring educational, economic, cultural opportunities. This is considered as the ninth sister city (friendship city) agreement, and firstly in the name of NTC.
Nevertheless, other than Starnberg and Province of Rizal, sister cities affiliations in NTC are with U.S. cities. In fact, the phenomenon is related to difficulties in Taiwan’s formal diplomatic relations. According to Hung (2011), since the first sister city relationship established between Taipei City and Houston, Texas on June 15, 1961 until the end of April, 2010, in nearly 50 years, there had been 217 pairs of sister cities (including friendship cities and partnership cities) in Taiwan. Ninety one pairs of them are with cities of the U.S., or 44.8%, which is a significantly higher proportion than with other countries.
The key factors of the phenomenon could be attributed to the severance of diplomatic relations between the U.S. and Taiwan in 1979. The U.S. strategically switched diplomatic recognition from the Republic of China (ROC) to the People's Republic of China (PRC). In this context, Taiwan’s local governments actively pursue formal relations with other countries, particular with U.S. cities to make up for the lack of formal diplomatic relations.
NTC is no exception and has even higher ratio for U.S. tie, five of sister city ties (66.6%) are established with U.S. cities. However, NTC has only nine sister cities at the city level. If compared the number of sister cities of NTC with its four counterparties: Kaohsiung (28), Taichung (23), Tainan (34) and Taipei (46), NTC still has much room for improvements.
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differences. (see Figure 4-1) It is surprised that there is completely no record of any exchange with Richland County, Province of Rizal and County of Harris. Moreover, according to the Secretariat of NTC Government, there is no record of any official exchange with Richland County and Province of Rizal after the signing of sister city agreements in 1988 and 2005. On the other hand, the cultural and educational exchanges with Cincinnati and Starnberg are frequent and fairly regular. (see Appendix 3)To further explore this gap, we discovered that local citizens in NTC’s sister cities play a crucial role in managing sister city relationships. In the case of Cincinnati, the Cincinnati USA Sister City Association is directly under the Mayor's Office.
Figure 4-1: The Number of Mutual Visits between NTC and Sister Cities Source: Secretariat of NTC Government
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committee which is directly responsible for the partnership, budget, programs, activities and visits. The Cincinnati-New Taipei City Sister City Committee is composed of overseas Taiwanese and has made great contribution to every sister city related activities. In case of Starnberg, Kempfenhausen of Starnberg and San-Min High School of NTC were designated by their respective governments as specific agencies for educational exchange activities and had active participation by the local community.
Therefore, structuring program with active citizens’ involvement is important and necessary. The foundation of a successful sister city partnership lies a strong local program with volunteers who are willing to commit time, talent and resources to develop a long-term relationship with their counterparts abroad. The “Building Your Local Program” proposed by Sister Cities International, a nonprofit citizen diplomacy network in the U.S. may be considered as an important learning reference for NTC.
The Program recommended three types of structures of sister city programs: the association, the city commission and the corporation. These three structures are common modes of operation based on successful experiences in the U.S.
The association is a group of people joined with a common purpose, often without a formal structure. This type of structure is usually found in small- to medium-size cities with an informal sister city program, and with little community-wide fundraising or funding. NTC’s sister city, Cincinnati belongs to this type. The city commission is put together formally by municipal ordinance and carries out its functions as an arm of city government. The Mayor usually appoints the members of the sister city commission which reports to the mayor and/or city council. The corporation is made up of individuals that must follow the laws regarding corporations.
In Taiwan, Kaohsiung City’s managements of sister cities could be another good
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reference for NTC. Kaohsiung City Government not only encouraged the public to establish Sister Cities Association but initiated an innovative project, Sister City Adoption Plan (姊妹市認養計畫) to urge government departments to “adopt” a sister city. For instance, Marine Bureau of Kaohsiung City adopted sister city, Miami, Florida, the U.S. based on the Plan. In March 2010, the Bureau participated in the seminar, 2010 Cruise Shipping Miami and visited Mayor Tomás Regalado of Miami.
It was considered as a significant restart for two cities.
The research found that NTC does not have ad hoc organizations like sister city association, city commission or the corporation to promote sister city activities. The interactions with sister cities in city are very passive. The Government does not take positive act and comprehensive policy on sister city affairs. The overall sister city affairs have not been given sufficient attention in NTC.