The success of Taiwan's city diplomacy was reported, following Taipei's obtaining of the right to hold the Citynet meeting for the Asia-Pacific region the year after next. Last month, the meeting of the Citynet executive committee was held in Lyon, France, and, with the cooperation of their Japanese friends, Taipei and Kaohsiung have become the official members of the organization. This has opened a new chapter for the cities to appear on the international stage.

During the process of approving the cities as the members, Shanghai protested on three occasions, opposing their entry into the organization. Shanghai insisted that Taiwan's cities must use ''China Taipei'' and ''China Kaohsiung'' respectively and be treated just as observers. However, such demands ended in vain.

The Citynet was established in 1987. It is a non-profit organization and an advisory organ to the United Nations. Most of the members are non-governmental organizations in Asia. The purpose of the organization is for members to exchange information and views on problems which occur in their cities, thereby coming up with good ideas to improve and resolve their issues.

At present, the organization consists of 19 cities and 103 organizations. Its executive committee is made up of 11 members. A general assembly is held every four years and meetings of the executive committee take place every year. Before Taipei and Kaohsiung became members of the Citynet, cities from mainland China, which were members of the executive committee, were Shanghai, Wuhan, Nanjing and Nanchang.

The committee also includes Bangkok, Chenmai, Seoul, Kuala Lumpur and Lyon, only one European city among the members.

Yokohama is the chairman of the Citynet. Hiroshi Nakada, the current mayor, has a good relationship with Taiwan. The port of Kaohsiung is an important spot in marine transportation in East Asia. In order to facilitate exchanges of information and views based on experiences of respective member cities, Nakada visited Taiwan several times and asked the Taiwanese cities to join the organization. When he met Taipei Mayor Ma Yinjiu, he promised to make best efforts to help them join the organization.

The Yokohama branch of Taiwan's representative office in Japan was eager to act as a go-between on this matter and expressed without hesitation to Yokohama city that Taiwan wanted to join the organization. The Taiwanese office reported to the Foreign Ministry of Taiwan and also sent to the three cities of Taipei, Kaohsiung and Taichong application forms to obtain membership in the organization. However, as the Taiwanese side was slow in responding to the move of the Yokohama branch office, Taichong was late in replying and missed a good chance to join the network.

The executive committee was held on Nov. 17 and 18 in France's Lyon. Before the meeting was held, Yokohama city discussed with the committee members and obtained two-thirds support for allowing the Taiwanese cities to be members of the organization. Mayor Nakada told Shanghai representative that members other than Chinese ones do not mind even if cities from mainland China and Taiwan become members of the network at the same time.

When the meeting was held, the committee decided that this matter should be studied by the organization's secretariat. The Shanghai representative insisted that, even if they became members of the network, their names should be ''Taipei, China'' and ''Kaohsiung, China'' respectively. However, the chairman of the committee said that all members are on an equal basis after their entry into the network and that the committee would not study the issue of what name the two cities should be allowed to use. The secretariat thus was asked to study this matter.

"We appreciate the efforts of Yokohama city. Our position is very solid and clear regarding the issue of naming the two cities." Chen Tiaohe, who is in charge of the Yokohama branch office of Taiwan, emphasized that Taiwan is an independent state which has sovereign rights, that Taiwan is not part of China and that ''Taipei, Taiwan'' and '' Kaohsiung, Taiwan'' will continue to be used in the future as well.

Regarding the names of the cities which matters to China, we also called to the attention of the Taiwanese side that Taiwan should be prepared to respond to requests from the organization's secretariat. The secretariat plans to distinguish between Taiwan and China by in the future using a membership registration form which has a box for ''country/area'' or ''country/city.'' Yokohama city sent to the two cities admission forms for membership. Once Taipei Mayor Ma Yingjiu and Kaohsiung Mayor Xie Changting sign the documents, their entries will become effective. Next year, a general assembly will be held in Hanoi. It is possible that China will again try to raise a protest over the naming issue but the move won't be eliminated.