Taipei's city council has put the budget for the annual Taipei–Shanghai Twin City Forum on hold, a setback for Mayor Chiang Wan-an and cross-strait city ties ahead of the year-end local elections.

• Councilors say most of the 49 cooperation agreements signed with Shanghai over 16 years have gone nowhere, with some revised by only a word or two each year.
• The city admits not every agreement was carried out and says the real results are limited to sports, culture, tourism, and wildlife conservation.
• Beijing-side officials have twice been denied entry for the December forum, and Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council says the event does little to promote peace anyway.
• Separately, Changhua County council speaker Hsieh Tien-lin and four family members were arrested over an alleged vote-buying banquet, shaking local politics before the November elections.
• Taipei mayoral race is heating up, with DPP challenger Shen Po-yang drawing large crowds while Chiang dismisses his bike-bridge plan as unworkable.

Outlook: The forum budget stays frozen until the city hands over records on the agreements, and whether the December forum happens at all may depend on who wins the mayor's office.