Abstract: The fundamental role of territorial spatial planning in cross-regional spatial governance for metropolitan regions is indispensable to China's strategies of coordinated regional development and new urbanization. However, the positioning of planning, its core tasks, implementation and transmission pathway, and its relationship with development planning still require clarification. Drawing on territorial spatial planning practices in the Greater Shanghai Metropolitan Region, this paper examines the core value and key tasks of metropolitan territorial spatial planning oriented to cross-regional governance. The value and function of such planning are reflected in five aspects: providing a spatial foundation for regional coordination, building institutional arrangements for equal consultation, preparing action plans for planning implementation, establishing a legal basis for cross-boundary control, and creating common opportunities for policy innovation. The key tasks of metropolitan territorial spatial planning are to highlight administrative logic and construct multi-scale spatial governance units; build stratified regional coordination strategies around the leading role of the core city; adhere to bounded planning and focus on key cross-regional strategic issues; concentrate on boundary areas and establish a penetrating model of spatial control; and design multi-field policy mechanisms oriented to implementation needs. The paper further proposes future research directions concerning planning-system articulation and governance-efficiency improvement, with the aim of informing metropolitan territorial spatial planning theory with Chinese characteristics and innovative cross-regional spatial governance practice.