FIRST READING: China is now openly meddling with our municipal politics

The Quebec town now governed by a WWE wrestler

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Nov 15, 2021 

Pro-Beijing protesters pictured in Vancouver in 2019. The Vancouver consulate of the People's Republic of China recently issued a stern reprimand to Vancouver City Hall based on little more than a suspicion that the municipality might do something they disliked

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First Reading is a daily newsletter keeping you posted on the travails of Canadian politicos, all curated by the National Post’s own Tristin Hopper. To get an early version sent direct to your inbox every Monday to Thursday at 6 p.m. ET (and 9 a.m. on Sundays), sign up here.e Taiwan Strait anymore (even though it’s international waters). Now, the People’s Republic of China even has a problem with the idea of Vancouver selecting a Taiwanese municipality as one of its sister cities. In a sternly worded Tuesday statement, the PRC’s Vancouver consulate said it will “firmly oppose any official tie” between Vancouver and Kaohsiung, a Taiwanese port city of roughly equivalent population . “There is only one China in the world,” it read , adding, “We hope that the government of Vancouver city will handle Taiwan-related issues prudently and properly.”

There are few political alliances more meaningless than sister city status; Vancouver’s relationship with its five existing sister cities (one of which is in Mainland China) amounts to little more than the occasional phone call or student field trip. But here’s where the story gets really odd: Vancouver hasn’t said anything about becoming the sister city of Kaohsiung (and, in fact, the official Vancouver website says they are “not entering into any new international partnerships”). The statement appears to be premised entirely on the fact that Vancouver Mayor Kennedy Stewart recently met some members of the city’s Taiwanese community , who pitched the idea to him.