Tokyo, 16 May, /AJMEDIA/
Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an, who is increasingly tipped as a future Taiwanese presidential candidate, began a four-day visit to Japan on Wednesday to strengthen relations.
The 45-year-old, who became Taipei’s youngest-ever mayor in 2022 and is a rising star of Taiwan’s opposition Nationalist Party, or Kuomintang, is a great-grandson of former Taiwanese leader Chiang Kai-shek. Tokyo Gov Yuriko Koike invited him to visit the Japanese capital when she held talks with him in Taipei in February.
Chiang will meet with Koike, members of Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party Youth Division and a cross-party group of Japanese lawmakers dedicated to strengthening Tokyo-Taipei relations.
He will also deliver a speech at a city leaders’ summit hosted by the Tokyo metropolitan government to share Taipei’s experience in earthquake resilience and dealing with extreme climate events, according to the Taipei city government.
Local media have reported that Chiang may hold talks with former Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso, but the mayor only told reporters at a Taipei airport before his departure that he will meet with “old friends” in Japan. The two met in the Taiwanese capital last August during Aso’s trip to the island.
Days before his departure, Chiang told a group of Japanese reporters in Taiwan that the island and Japan have very deep historical and cultural ties and that he expects his Japan trip will help deepen exchanges between the two sides.
Chiang Kai-shek retreated to Taiwan in 1949 after suffering defeat to the Chinese Communist Party in a civil war. Taiwan and mainland China have since been governed separately.
The mainland has reacted sharply to any official interaction between Taipei and countries that have diplomatic relations with China.
