Chiang Chi-chen Leads Delegation to Japan, Attends Asian-Pacific Parliamentarians' Union Council Meeting
Taiwan sent a cross-party delegation of lawmakers to Tokyo for a regional parliamentary summit, a modest but useful win for Taiwan's standing in Asia.
- Deputy Legislative Speaker Chiang Chi-chen led lawmakers from across Taiwan's parties to the 88th Asian-Pacific Parliamentarians' Union council meeting, with 13 member countries and observers attending.
- Japan's lower house speaker Mori Eisuke hosted a welcome dinner and called Taiwan a key partner because it is home to TSMC, the world's biggest chipmaker.
- The meeting's theme is keeping trade open and making regional supply chains harder to break — a direct response to unstable geopolitics.
- Taiwan's delegation used the dinner to work its remaining diplomatic allies, including Tuvalu, Palau and the Marshall Islands.
- Taiwanese lawmakers also offered condolences over the recent Kumamoto earthquake and Chiba floods, leaning on shared disaster experience to build goodwill.
Outlook: Japan's Yamaguchi Shun'ichi now chairs the group, and the Tokyo sessions continue with talk of tighter parliamentary cooperation on supply chains and chips.