As a young democracy activist, Chen Chu was thrown into jail for opposing the military dictatorship that ruled Taiwan until the 1980s. Decades later, a more matronly Ms Chen is now mayor of Kaohsiung, the second most populous city, and the battle she is fighting is not political but economic.

The industrial port city in the tropical south was once dominated by industries such as ship building and petrochemicals. But competition from cheaper Chinese rivals forced many of those companies to shut or move their factories to mainland China. Even by the standards of Taiwan’s slack economy, Kaohsiung has struggled, economists say.

Now Ms Chen is trying to attract investment and to help new kinds of businesses set up in Kaohsiung to reinvent the once-thriving city. Most strikingly, although a star of the opposition Democratic Progressive party, known for its hostility to China, she has travelled there many times to study its development and to promote her city.