Contesting Taipei as a world city

Abstract

This paper aims to analyze the contesting process in building Taipei as the world city in Taiwan`s current democratic transition period. Special attention is paid to the dwindling status of Taipei as the world city due to the North-South political divide in the national politics in which the ruling party supports its politically based city in the south as contesting with Taipei in the north where the opposition party has been dominant. We argue that this North-South divide provides a favorable environment for the ruling party to mobilize and maintain its support in the south as against the north which has nevertheless resulted in the declining status of Taipei in the international city competition.