Taiwan's national planning body approved a big expansion of the Longtan Science Park in Taoyuan, good news for the island's chip industry and local jobs, while cross-strait politics stayed tense ahead of the November local elections.

• The third-phase expansion of Longtan Science Park cleared the National Development Council and now goes to the Cabinet for final sign-off.
• The 104-hectare site is expected to add thousands of jobs and hundreds of billions of Taiwan dollars in yearly output, paving the way for TSMC-scale chipmakers to move in.
• Taoyuan mayor Chang San-cheng says the city has held nearly a hundred coordination meetings on water, power, roads, and schools to support the park.
• Cross-strait friction continued: Beijing insists Taiwan attend the APEC labor meeting in Nanjing as "Chinese Taipei" under its one-China framing, while Taipei's China affairs council shrugged off the naming dispute.
• The Taipei-Shanghai city forum hit a snag as Taipei councilors froze its budget over stalled agreements, and Taiwan blocked senior Shanghai officials from visiting.

Outlook: The park expansion moves to the Cabinet next, while cross-strait exchanges look set to stay frozen until after the year-end elections decide who runs Taipei.