时论广场》蒋万安的城市国际化策略（方恩格）

台北市政府不应只被动依赖观光局等中央政府机构来做城市行销，应该采取主动之姿。建议落实「城市外交三不策略」：不出国、不视讯会议、不受外媒采访。图为2022 ITF 台北国际旅展。(摄/景义婷)

「#双语教育、#外国观光客、#城市国际化、#外商投资、#市政外交」这些热门关键字在刚结束的地方选战文宣中随处可见，尤其是各县市长候选人都极力强调想「跟国际接轨」的迫切，必须要打出几张「国际牌」才能不落人后。身为新任首都市长的蒋万安首当其冲呼喊要「让世界走进台北」，但与其高喊一些令人朗朗上口的口号，笔者更乐见蒋市长能替台北市的居民改善日常生活环境议题（如交通、住房、大巨蛋完工等），否则鉴于前车，绚烂如烟火的国际化大饼，不久后很可能会沦为曾经金玉其外的蚊子馆。

以下笔者就台北的国际化方针，在此献策予蒋市长：

一、提升城市外交的交流品质：笔者仔细观察了过去城市外交的执行，认为政府官员的出勤时间可以花在更有意义的城市建设与规画上，而不是花上大把时间与他国城市官员开视讯会议，然后发新闻稿。这些视讯会议重量不重质，若真要说这些视讯会议有什么功用，大概就是帮助这些与会首长的选民成绩单记上一笔「出口转内销」的形象分数，上了新闻、有跟国际人士对话，看起来像是「有在做事」。

台北市过去如拉业绩一般，陆续洋洋洒洒与50多个外国城市签下了「姊妹市」、「伙伴市」、「友谊市」、「友好城市备忘录」、「友好合作备忘录」等友好城市关系，多缔结一个新欢城市，该任市长的外交成绩单就能记上一支功。如果蒋市长上任后想与现有的友好城市做出更深的交流，可能需要请益时间管理大师该怎么做。

而县市级首长率团出国做市政考察也不是太聪明的做法，很多民众视之为「以考察之名、行出国旅游之实」。2018年3月时任高雄市市长陈菊访美（回国几天后她就请辞高雄市长而赴任总统府秘书长一职），她在华盛顿会见当地的台侨组织，并在智库CSIS做了关于台湾民主化与人权发展的演说，但她在演说中连结治理高雄或高雄市政的相关性，实在牵强。而柯文哲市长在台北市长任期内访问了以色列、荷兰、日本、新加坡等国，这些旅行也惹出不少争议。

在此提醒县市长们在任期内要出国必须三思，虽然他们也有权休假，但如果刚好休假出国旅行时台湾发生了天灾人祸、没在第一时间赶到现场指挥，也可能会落人口实。所以身为县市首长还是别跑太远为上策。

此外，县市级的外交活动若缺乏缜密计划，也很可能沦为政治对手的攻击武器。2019年时任民进党立委余宛如发了英文推文指出：布拉格市长不应与台北市缔结友好城市，因为市长柯文哲「亲中」（pro-Beijing）。来自台湾内部自己起哄的国际公开抨击，当时比起柯市长，最尴尬的应该是布拉格市长。

二、力推台北的卖点：县市级单位不应只被动依赖观光局等中央政府机构来做城市行销，应该采取主动之姿，但很可惜笔者亲眼见证了台北市政府将城市行销资源白白付诸流水。2020年笔者很荣幸应台北市广播电台FM93.1之邀主持一档广播节目，当时节目部与笔者兴高采烈讨论此节目的构想，为以英语来向国际听众介绍台北市政府各部门的业务、功能、或活动，好让民众更了解台北市政府的运作，并进而推广台北市的生活资讯、产业环境、观光宣导等举措，加上讨论城市国际化议题、并创造双语环境。然而就如许多的公共政策与建设一样，虽然企画周详，但很可惜后继无力。原本预定派出上节目访谈的市府各部会都一一出缺或婉拒，身为主持人的笔者到后来必须自己一一打电话找来宾来上节目。不久后，电台亦告知希望笔者改以中文主持此节目。这或许是台湾所说的「滚动式调整」？总之此节目的初衷到了后期已经烟消云散，令从头参与到尾的笔者不胜唏嘘。

三、举办国际规模的活动赛事：这不但能让台北具有国际声量，也能让世界更认识台湾。虽然也有反面声量批评这类赛事主要是为了拿到主办权的市长面子加分，且在地居民可能不会太喜欢看到市政预算被花在举办炫目的活动上。但放眼过去台北市所举办的一些国际活动与赛事，如2009年夏季听障奥林匹克运动会、2010年台北国际花卉博览会、2017年夏季世界大学运动会、2025年夏季世界壮年运动会等，这些成功的国际活动都能让远道而来的外宾、外媒更认识台北，对于城市国际形象能大大加分。

四、避开外媒：外国媒体若有机会采访蒋万安市长，他们最大的兴趣会落在蒋家家族历史或台海关系，而不会把焦点放在他的市长身分，毕竟台北市政府的教育、住房或交通等政策，不会是他们感兴趣的重点。也鉴于许多台湾政要在接受外媒采访后引发争议，事后还要出来澄清或道歉，或者有的政治人物为了证明自己英文够好能接受外媒采访，但却画虎不成反类犬出了一些尴尬的状况（如近期中国国民党朱立伦主席接受德国之声的采访急着离席）。以英文母语者的角度，笔者虽然感谢他们试着用英文表达的心意，但仍衷心建议蒋市长避免接受外国媒体采访，就算真的接受了访问，笔者知道蒋市长的英文程度极好，但也最好使用中文受访。

五、增加国民外交机会：每当有外国人士公开表达对台湾的喜爱或支持（或者说台湾的食物很好吃），台湾政府与民间都会特别开心。有趣的是，他们特别重视「从外国来的」挺台言论或夸赞，但对于居住在台湾本地的外籍人士似乎没有特别喜爱。可能这就是所谓的「外国的月亮比较圆」？但其实这些外国人选择来到台北居住，都代表了他们对这个城市的选择与许诺，他们或许更能作为台湾与他国之间友好桥梁。

2022年笔者与台北市政府、消防局筹备数月，展开了一项招募外籍居民担任台北市义消的合作计划。时值台湾四处对于国防与民防意识日增，笔者认为由政府提供外籍居民参与义警或义消的机会，就外交、国防，以及台北的国际化与文化多样性方面多有益处，也能提供外籍居民为台北贡献一己之力、参与公众事务的机会。

若新任的台北市府团队想要推广台北的国际化，建议蒋市长可参考笔者的「城市外交三不策略」：不出国、不视讯会议、不受外媒采访。若蒋市长能勤于市政、脚踏实地好好规画执行台北的日常市政治理，这将会是对台北最好的国际宣传。笔者深信台北绝对有潜力打败其他城市，成为亚洲首屈一指的国际化首都。

（作者为美国共和党前亚太区主席）

After the Local Elections: A Foreign Policy for Local Governments?

By Ross Darrell Feingold

Former Asia Chairman, Republicans Abroad

Twitter: @RossFeingold

Bilingual Education. Foreign Tourists. Internationalization. Multinational Corporations Investment. Municipal Diplomacy.

These are some of the buzzwords that candidates for municipal leaders in the recent local election repeat as if they have an international fever that compels them to do more “foreign stuff”. Although many municipal leaders are infected with this fever, the new Taipei City Mayor Wayne Chiang Wan-an might, because Taipei City is the capital, feel compelled to undertake many such initiatives. In reality, these kinds of activities are not why he was elected mayor, so, hopefully Mayor Chiang will focus on the things that need to be done to make Taipei City better on a day-to-day basis and avoid the “international fever”.

In this regard, here is my advice to Mayor Chiang:

1. Recognize the Limits of Municipal Diplomacy: Frankly, this author views most municipal diplomacy initiatives as a waste of time. Videoconferences between Taipei with municipal officials in cities far away to learn how they do something with and is often quantity over quality or attempts by politicians to gain positive overseas media coverage (what is known in Taiwan as "First Export, Then Re-Sell Domestically". By way of example, Taipei City has over 50 sister, partner and other bilateral relationships with cities worldwide. If Mayor Chiang can engage with so many of these sister cities, he would be what Taiwanese call a guy who is a “time management master”.

Similarly, overseas travel often gets municipal leaders in trouble, because they are seen as leisure travel packaged as “inspection” tours to learn how to improve municipal governance in Taiwan. In March 2018, then Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu visited the United States (days before she formally resigned to become the Presidential Office Secretary General) and in Washington DC met Taiwanese expatriates organizations and delivered a speech at think tank CSIS mostly about Taiwan’s democratization, activities that didn’t help improve the governance of Kaohsiung City. Mayor Ko’s trips to Israel, Netherlands, Japan and other locations often resulted in negative rather than positive media coverage. Taiwan’s municipal leaders are entitled to holidays (including one overseas if they so decide), though whether for official travel or personal travel there’s the risk of being outside Taiwan when a natural or manmade disaster occurs.

Mayor Chiang should keep in mind that his municipal diplomacy initiatives might be attacked by his political opponents. In 2019, then Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Karen Yu tweeted in English that the Prague Mayor should not establish sister city ties with Taipei City, because Mayor Ko Wen-je is “pro-Beijing”.

2. Recognize the Good Things Taipei Has, and Market Those: Taipei City cannot rely on central government agencies such as the Tourism Bureau to help market the city to tourists or investors. Unfortunately, Taipei City government agencies also fail to do a good job marketing the city. In 2020 this author I was asked to host a radio program on the city-operated radio station, FM93.1, Taipei Broadcasting Station. The initial understanding was that the show would be in English (to promote bilingual education and internationalization) and that the content of the program would be to explain to audiences in Taiwan and outside Taiwan good things the Taipei City government has achieved, upcoming events organized by the Taipei City government, and to generally explain what makes Taipei City a great place to live, work or visit. Unfortunately, city government agencies lacked the resources to accommodate requests for English-language interviews.

3. Positive Attitude Towards International Events: A good way to show Taipei to the world is to successfully execute international events. Although these events are often criticized as vanity projects for the mayor who decided to bid for hosting rights, and the budgets are hard to justify when there are other priorities for those who live and work in Taipei City. Regardless of any controversy, Taipei City has a history of generally successful international events including the 2009 Summer Deaflympics, 2010 Taipei International Flora Exposition and the 2017 Summer Universiade. Most visitors to Taipei for these events had a positive experience, and international media coverage was generally positive. A similar upcoming event is the 2025 Summer World Masters Games jointly hosted by New Taipei and Taipei City, which is a great chance to showcase Taipei.

4. Don’t Do Foreign Media Interviews: The main interest foreign media will have in interviewing Mayor Chiang is to ask about the Chiang family history and China-Taiwan relations. They certainly do not want to interview him about the details of Taipei City government education, housing, or traffic policies. In addition, there are many examples of Taiwan politicians having to clarify after a foreign media interview what they said because their answers to the foreign reporter’s question resulted in domestic controversy. Sometimes this occurs when the Taiwan politician tries to show off their English language ability and accepts the interview in English only for the interview to become a disaster like what recently happened to Chinese Nationalist Party Chairman Eric Chu. My advice would be to do no foreign media interviews, but if he does, then do it in Mandarin not English notwithstanding Mayor Chiang speaks English well.

5. Foreign Residents Are Also Great Ambassadors: This author previously opined that Taiwan’s central and local government agencies have an odd habit of valuing foreigners who live outside Taiwan and make some gesture to show support for Taiwan over the foreign population resident in Taiwan. The Taipei City government can do more with the resident foreign community, who by their decision to live in Taipei City have demonstrated their commitment to this city. In 2022 this author spent months working with the Taipei City government and fire department to launch a program to welcome foreign residents to serve as volunteer firemen. At a time when many are asking what can they do to contribute to “civil defense”, this initiative offers foreign residents a chance to participate at the municipal government level, and would also demonstrate Taipei City’s diversity.

If the incoming Taipei City government wants to show how international Taipei is, Mayor Chiang Wan-an and his team don’t need to travel overseas, have video conferences with foreign city governments, or do foreign media interviews. Focus on day-to-day municipal governance, which can generate great publicity for Taipei City versus capitals in Asia that are still struggling with covid or other issues.