The Global Reach of the Local Government: The City Diplomacy in New Taipei City, Taiwan

• Main Author: 吳惠琳
• Other Authors: Chiang, Alex
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2015
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/7uk43a

碩士 === 國立政治大學 === 亞太研究英語碩士學位學程(IMAS) === 104 === The history of city diplomacy discussed extensively in the academic community can be traced back to the town-twinning initiatives and sister-city movements after the end of WWII. City diplomacy in Taiwan has been flourishing since the 1960s; however, academic research on the topic is relatively new and few. This thesis attempted initiating this topic through a case study of New Taipei City (NTC), the largest city in Taiwan to make up academic inadequacies. The origin and implementation of city diplomacy was probed as an important basis for exploring the topic. The thesis analyzed NTC’s bilateral city-to-city exchanges and multilateral city-based international organizations participation and further discussed the city’s achievements and challenges from the legal and political perspective. The research findings revealed that the achievements of city diplomacy in NTC mainly focused on the fields of education and culture. At the same time, the city encountered various difficulties, in addition to the internal and external limitations due to Taiwan’s diplomatic difficulties, legal and political restrictions, such as dilemma of sister cities at district level and political issue on cross-strait intercity exchanges are challenges that NTC faced with.