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Taipei-Bangkok Ties Show a New Model for Taiwan’s City-Level Diplomacy

Taipei-Bangkok Ties Show a New Model for Taiwan’s City-Level Diplomacy

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Taipei-Bangkok Ties Show a New Model for Taiwan’s City-Level Diplomacy

Introduction  

On January 29, 2023, the Thai-Taiwan Business Association (TTBA, 泰國台灣商會聯合總會), a Taiwanese business organization founded to “protect the right and interests of Taiwanese businessmen [and] strengthen the Taiwanese community in Thailand,” organized the 2023 Taiwan Charity Run event at Suan Luang Rama IX, one of the most popular public parks in Bangkok. The group aimed to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the establishment of the Thai-Taiwan Business Association. Chadchart Sittipunt, the current Bangkok governor, and Chuang Suo-hang (莊碩漢), a former Taiwanese representative to Thailand, both attended the event. This sort of public event stands in contrast with the policy of Thailand’s neighbor Cambodia, which since 2016 has not allowed Taiwanese people to celebrate Taiwan’s National Day in their country. 

Chadchart Sittipunt (middle), the governor of Bangkok, attended the 2023 Taiwan Charity Run in Bangkok’s Suan Luang Rama IX Park

Image: Chadchart Sittipunt (middle), the governor of Bangkok, attended the 2023 Taiwan Charity Run in Bangkok’s Suan Luang Rama IX Park. (Image source: Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Thailand)

The globalization of Taiwan’s economy since the 1970s—particularly when Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國) was in power (1978-1988)—has led Taiwan to welcome foreign investment into its capital city, Taipei. Thailand has participated in economic engagement with Taiwan in recent years through Thai-sponsored events held in Taipei and supported by local government officials. Since 2016, the Thailand Trade and Economic Office has partnered with the Taipei City government to hold Thai cultural activities and events—such as the Amazing Thailand Festival 2023, at which Taipei City Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) gave the opening remarks.

Despite this enduring partnership, there is still an absence of broader city-to-city engagement. Although Bangkok supports both Taiwanese businesses and associations such as the TTBA, the city is not one of Taipei’s sister cities, and there is still no formal city government agreement between them. [1] In the absence of a formal agreement, how have Bangkok and Taipei City maintained their contemporary relationship through activities and events? 

Avenues for City-to-City Cooperation between Bangkok and Taipei 

Although city mayors are primarily focused on domestic administrative issues, their responsibilities can also touch upon some aspects of international relations. Emphasizing Taipei’s diversity and multiculturalism, Taipei Mayor Chiang said during a visit to the Harvard Kennedy School in September 2024 that “Taipei is more like a hot-pot.” During this talk, he highlighted immigration from Southeast Asia as contributing to the city’s diversity. 

When it comes to local-level politics, the “Bangkok Nine Good Policy” promoted during Bangkok Mayor Chadchart Sittipunt’s election campaign is an inward-looking policy, which mainly focuses on local peoples’ quality of life by building up an ideal city. Still, this doesn’t mean that the Bangkok government is uninterested in strengthening international cooperation. The Bangkok government’s International Affairs Division aims “to develop the city to be the centre of the region and to move forward as equal [to] other global leading cities by cooperating with cities and international organizations.” Thus, the main goal of Bangkok in regards to international engagement is cooperation.

For the Taipei City government, its International Affairs Division is primarily responsible for “setting up receptions and scheduling visits for foreign guests and delegates.” Yet, they also emphasize international engagement. For example, one of the duties of the International Affairs Division is “participating in international activities and organizations to heighten Taipei’s international profile and making meaningful contributions to the international community.” Likewise, Bangkok’s International Affairs Division focuses on delegates and foreign guests, including guests of His Majesty the King. As such, both organizations function in a similar fashion. They are both responsible for facilitating people-to-people engagement, and highlight the importance of such ties in building up relations between two countries.

While Bangkok and Taipei share the same goal of strong international cooperation, findings show that there are no contemporary relationships between them. In this way, the case of the Manila-Taipei city relationship is important for understanding the relationship between Taipei and Southeast Asian cities. One important aspect to note is that the Manila-Taipei sister city agreement is in part the result of security ties: the original agreement was made in 1966 when both the Republic of China (Taiwan) and the Republic of the Philippines were staunchly anti-Communist Asian states, and this relationship endures because Taiwan supports the Philippines in the South China Sea. Thus, a formal relationship between Taipei and Bangkok or other Southeast Asian cities does not exclude the context of the Sino-Taiwan conflict.

Screenshot 2025 01 21 at 10.50.39 AM

Image: Taipei City Mayor Chiang Wan-an (center right) stands among other dignitaries at the “Amazing Thailand Festival” held in Taipei in April 2023. (Image source: Taipei City Government)

International Participation

Although the 2023 Taiwan Charity Run successfully occurred in Bangkok, the Taiwanese issue is so sensitive at the national level that Bangkok has avoided more direct forms of cooperation with Taipei City. Despite this, Bangkok and Taipei have participated in the same international associations, and this has also created opportunities for cooperation. 

One such organization is CityNet, the largest international city association. Established in 1987, CityNet aims to promote urban sustainability. Opening the door for Bangkok and Taipei City to cooperate, representatives of Bangkok and Taipei attended CityNet’s 2024 Crisis Management Conference, which was hosted by Jakarta on May 29-30, 2024. During the event, Taipei City representatives shared their disaster prevention techniques with the other 11 participating cities. They also shared measures and mitigation achievements in response to climate change with other international cities to deepen international cooperation and exchange experiences. The CityNet secretariat team, led by CEO Jeongkee Kim, visited Taipei City Hall on March 19, 2024. The visit, which aimed to discuss the potential cooperation between Taipei City and CityNet, resulted in the Taipei Fire Department participating in CityNet, and highlighted disaster response as Taipei’s central focus. 

Apart from CityNet, Bangkok and Taipei City are also members of other international fora, such as the World Cities Summit and the Asia Pacific Cities Summit. But, the current level of engagement between the two cities is difficult to gauge because the websites for these events do not show data regarding direct international participation. Thus, CityNet is currently the most likely platform through which Bangkok can learn from and exchange knowledge with Taipei regarding their disaster response techniques.   

Cities as Venues for Engagement

Without direct support from the city governments, organized activities and events in Bangkok and Taipei are instead organized by other actors. In Thailand, the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Thailand and the Thai-Taiwan Business Association are the Taiwanese actors mainly responsible for planning events and activities. Still, Taiwan’s flagship event in Thailand is the Taiwan Expo, which is organized by Taiwan’s External Trade Development Council. Held as part of former President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) attempts to reduce Taiwan’s overreliance on the Chinese market, Taiwan has held this event in Bangkok since 2018. At the premiere event in 2018, 210 Taiwanese companies participated; and as of August 2024, Taiwan Expo had attracted 580 exhibitors and 169,712 visitors—reportedly generating USD $317 million in business opportunities.

In addition to promoting Taiwanese businesses, the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office (TECO) in Thailand promotes Taiwanese investment, culture and education in Thailand. For example, from August 30 to 31, TECO organized the 2024 Thailand Taiwan Higher Education Fair and Job Counselling Event at Samyan Mitrtown in Bangkok. Moreover, in June 2024, Chang Chun-Fu (張俊福), Taiwan’s representative to Thailand, and Narong Boonsatheanwong, the executive director of the Thailand Trade and Economic Office in Taipei, officially signed the Agreement for the Promotion and Protection of Investments between Taiwan and Thailand. As such, actors promoting economic and trade relations between Thailand and Taiwan use Bangkok as a place to promote bilateral relations and to organize public events.

CEO Jeongkee Kim from CityNet (left) meets with Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (right) at Taipei City Hall (March 19, 2024)

Image: CEO Jeongkee Kim from CityNet (left) meets with Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (right) at Taipei City Hall (March 19, 2024). (Image source: CityNet)

Meanwhile, two leading Thai actors organize activities and events in Taiwan: the Thailand Trade and Economic Office in Taipei, and the Thailand Board of Investment. For the former, its core agenda is to strengthen Thailand-Taiwan cooperation and to promote Thai cultural activities. The latter supports Taiwan’s investment in Thailand, especially the Taiwanese smart city-based industry. In order to strengthen cooperation, Chen Hann-Chuan (陳漢川), the chairman of the Thai-Taiwan Business Association, has visited the Thailand Trade and Economic Office in Taipei to attend activities that promote the Thai market to Taiwanese businesspeople. The Thailand Board of  Investment in Thailand is also influential as the biggest Taiwanese business group in Thailand. As such, the 2023 Taiwan Charity Run reflects the close economic ties between Taiwan and Thailand, but not a close city-level relationship. 

Because of the weakness of official Bangkok-Taipei relations on a city government level, this article proposes that both cities focus on less contentious, functional topics—like disaster response, the environment, and climate change—as these focus areas will help Bangkok and Taipei engage more through organizations such as CityNet. Still, the Sino-Taiwan relationship continues to play a decisive role in the Bangkok government’s engagement with Taipei City. Accordingly, the Taipei City government should promote an agenda of “lower-order engagement” on the international stage, promoting its functional expertise to gain international participation: for example, supporting the development of sustainable cities in Southeast Asia. [2]

The last finding of this article is that a shared economic interest at the national level allows both Taiwan and Thailand to continue bilateral investment and encourages business cooperation. However, the Bangkok city government, while holding Taiwanese events, is still under the shadow of cross-Strait tensions. Therefore, the possibility of establishing a sister city relationship between the Bangkok government and Taipei City government—let alone the two countries working together on issues such as the South China Sea—is still an unrealistic dream. As a result, lower-order engagement should be the focus of Taipei’s international participation with Bangkok.

The main point: Taiwan-related events regularly occur in Bangkok, but the Bangkok government and Taipei City government do not have official cooperation agreements—and cross-Strait tensions continue to impact the Bangkok-Taipei city-level relationship. Because both cities participate on international stages like the World Cities Summit and the Asia Pacific Cities Summit—and most significantly, CityNet, where Taiwan is a leader on disaster response issues—focusing on cooperation through lower-order engagement can help Taipei engage with Bangkok and other cities more effectively.  


[1] Currently, there are a total of 52 cities that have signed sister city agreements with Taipei. Among those sister cities, the largest share are in the United States, with a total of 12 cities. Manila is the only capital city from Southeast Asia that has a sister city relationship with Taipei.  

[2] For an example of Taiwan’s expertise in this area, see: Jeffrey Hou, Urban Governance in East Asia: Lessons from Taiwan’s Open Green Program, Global Taiwan Institute, June 2021, https://globaltaiwan.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Jeffrey-Hou-Report-1.pdf.

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