PURELY ACADEMIC:All preparations for next year’s conference in Taichung are to be terminated following the rejection of its transportation bureau’s director-general

Taipei Times
Date: Jul 17, 2017
By: Huang Chung-shan / Staff reporter

Officials from Taichung and Taoyuan — which are governed by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) — have been rejected from attending the Cross-Strait Academic Conference on Urban Traffic in Shanghai, sources said yesterday.

Officials from other cities and counties not governed by the DPP were not barred, the sources said, adding that it was another example of China’s suppression of Taiwan.

The academic conference started in 1993 in Shanghai and has been held 24 times in 24 cities in China and Taiwan since then.

This year, the conference is to be held from Aug. 21 to Aug. 23 at Kingswell Hotel Tongji, and is to be hosted by the Shanghai Institute of Traffic Engineering and Tongji University under the theme “transportation developments over a quarter century and future challenges.”    [FULL  STORY]