Hello, Minister Tang.

Long time no see.

Good. One second. Let me turn my camera on.

One second.

There you go. You can see my laundry in the back.

[laughs]

I sent a couple questions about 15 minutes ago. Most of them are pretty straightforward.

A lot of the questions I have are just following up on some of the things that happened with the OGP in Taiwan since 2013. That does appear to be the first time that Taiwan had some interest in joining the OGP. Does that sound about right to you?

I never saw anything in the news, in the English news at least, and I didn’t see anything in the Chinese news about what was the final resolution of that first bid. What happened to that first bid?

At that time then, Taiwan also concurrently proposed a national action plan for the OGP at the same time?

From what I understand also about the OGP they also require that a specific department or unit is in charge from the government side. Which side at that time did Taiwan choose, I should say which government department or unit did Taiwan choose to be in charge of the OGP bid?

Has Taiwan continued to apply to the OGP since that previous application?

What was the reason why that it hasn’t done a subsequent official bid?

I find it quite curious from the OGP standpoint because I’m sure you’ve noticed a lot of their terminology uses things like member governments as opposed to member state or member country. That kind of language seems to not preclude Taiwan from joining. Was that your thought also when you went to Paris in 2016? Were you looking for...?

Was there any possibility that Taipei or any other city in Taiwan could join on the sub-national level? Is that a possibility still?

Basically, Taiwan would have to join first as a member government before Taipei, or Kaohsiung, or Taichung could join as a sub-national government?

That probably hasn’t changed also then from your understanding.

What is the level of communication between Taiwan and the OGP? Do you have any contact person, or is there anyone that you’re relatively familiar with that you keep in contact with at the OGP on a regular basis?

I see. Taiwan would be such an ideal partner for the OGP just in so many ways. Taiwan is a leader in open data. It’s a leader in participatory platforms. The vTaiwan platform, the Join platform are great platforms and good examples for other countries in East Asia. It has one of the strongest civic tech organizations in East Asia, possibly all of Asia.

It seems like Taiwan would have a lot to give to the OGP. Do they see that also, or is that not something that they have noticed as of yet?

If Taiwan can’t contribute to the OGP, what are some ways that you think Taiwan could contribute to open government, open data, or the civic tech movement regionally, perhaps the Asia-Pacific region, or globally?

From an international-relations perspective, Taiwan is often blocked from joining very important international fora because of China’s position on Taiwan. Is that the case with the OGP, or is it something that could be potential, or is it not just because it’s something that China’s not interested in? They’re not interested in open governments, so they don’t care about this particular issue.

I’ve never in my experience seen anything that says that China is interested in this concept of open government even. We’ve certainly seen open-data portals before, but this term of open government has not been bandied about by, say for example, by the PRC or by Beijing from what I’ve seen. Does that also mesh with your experience?

If Taiwan can’t join OGP as a member government, what other ways do you hope Taiwan can participate in the OGP?

Taiwan can participate in the OGPs by sending members of civil society to the OGP Summit. At the same time, I feel that it’s a bit of a shame that Taiwan can only send members of Civil Society to it. I’m sure you’ve seen it in the numbers of people that Taiwan sends compared to other countries in Asia-Pacific.

Taiwan sends a huge amount of members of civil society to the OGP. In 2016, they sent 13 members, which was the largest amount of members in East Asia if we’re talking about, say for example, Korea, Japan, China.

Then this year, I haven’t looked at the other countries, but almost certain with 20 members from Taiwan, that’s probably also the largest amount of members from East Asia that attended it. Isn’t it just a shame that it’s only civil society that can participate in the OGP?

Most people in Taiwan actually don’t know about the OGP. Let’s be honest. I think globally we can say that open government, open data, civic tech is still very much a niche thing. Do you think if there was wider attention about what the OGP was or open government was, do you think that there’d be more demand from the Taiwanese public for it to participate in the OGP as Taiwan?

It’s not in Canada either.

That’s about it. My last question would be if the OGP offered Taiwan membership, how would you reply to that? How would you feel about that?

That’s about all the questions I have then, Minister Tang. Thank you so much.

You totally can. Absolutely, feel free.

OK, great, yeah.

Have a great day.

Bye.

你覺得福建省政府會有意見嗎？（笑）