During the municipal council meeting in January, the city of Västerås decided that cooperation would be terminated. Nor would the City of Västerås complete the three-year collaboration that would last between 2019 and 2021.
- China is not a democracy. We want to be involved in democratic development work and we see that it is impossible with China, says Anders Teljebäck (S) chairman of the municipal council, and continues:
- We started a collaboration quite a long time ago and it was in a different context. Now it looks very different.
Taiwan - an interesting example of resident dialogue
According to Sinologist Lars Ellström, there are several interesting countries to see if Västerås city wants to develop the population dialogue and citizen influence. Taiwan is an interesting example, he says.
- They have undergone a rapid process of democratization and where in recent years a unique system of citizen influence has been built up. This with the help of social and other digital media, he says.