The televised debate on the Taipei mayoral election that has attracted much attention from all walks of life ended yesterday (10/31). The current mayor Chiang Wanan frequently labeled and slandered the Democratic Progressive Party candidate Shen Boyang on the debate stage. His aggressive attitude made Blue and White voters so happy that they went out to post "Mayor Chiang wins" on the Internet. Luo Zhiqiang, Xu Qiaoxin and other Chiang Kai-shek campaign cadres also came out to ridicule. We can further examine Jiang Wanan's speech yesterday. Many netizens criticized almost all the lies in the speech. Some people specially invited villagers to count how many lies Jiang Wanan told on stage. As a result, nearly a thousand comments were posted and tens of thousands of people liked it!
Some netizens invited everyone on Threads last night to take stock of the lies Jiang Wanan blurted out during the debate with Shen Boyang. The post was exposed and immediately triggered an enthusiastic response. Here is a summary of several "big lies" mentioned by most netizens:
1. Let Baolin Teahouse not be able to run away?
When Jiang Wanan answered a question about the "Baolin Teahouse Mass Food Poisoning Case" that broke out in March 2024 and resulted in six deaths, he claimed that as soon as the incident occurred, thanks to his colleagues in the city government, the prosecutors had very important evidence for subsequent prosecutions, "so that Baolin could not escape and the families of the victims could receive compensation."
But the truth is that the Taipei City Government did not implement the false seizure at the first time. When it came time to collect fines and seek compensation, it was discovered that all the company and personal assets under the name of the person in charge had been transferred and emptied. Currently, there is basically no real property available for enforcement in Taiwan, including administrative fines totaling NT$3.5 million issued to him. None of them have been paid yet, leaving the victims’ families with no recourse.
2. When dealing with child abuse incidents, do you always communicate with parents face-to-face?
When Shen Boyang talked about child abuse incidents, including the "Charis Kindergarten Case", Jiang Wanan claimed that he had personally "face-to-face communication" with parents of abused children, "listened to their voices and accepted love letters". He also revealed his identity as a "three-baby dad" and emphasized that he must take responsibility when his children are treated inappropriately.
Not long after his speech was exposed, parents of children who were victims of the Charis Kindergarten case posted messages on social media to slap him in the face. The "face-to-face communication" Jiang Wanan mentioned was actually the parents who had been unable to seek help for a long time. In the end, they were desperate and went to the door of the city council to "block people" before meeting the mayor and submitting a petition. It was not an initiative arranged by the city government. Moreover, even if they met, Jiang Wanan did not discuss specific issues or make commitments. He angrily accused the mayor of beautifying the process of being blocked into "active listening," which was infuriating.
3. Will major food safety meetings be held in person?
Shen Boyang debated major food safety incidents and meeting absenteeism rates at the debate. Jiang Wanan claimed that his city government team would never evade major incidents, and he would always personally convene ad hoc meetings to direct and control progress.
According to Taipei City Council inquiries and related meeting records, Chiang Wanan served as the convener of the Taipei City Food Safety Committee. His absence rate at food safety meetings held during his tenure was as high as 73% (absent 11 out of 15 meetings), and he did not attend in person the temporary meetings held due to major food poisoning cases such as Baolin Teahouse and Wangpin Group.
4. Is it great that the Ji Ji case held 4 special project meetings in person?
Shen Boyang also questioned Jiang Wanan's failure to attend the child care system management committee and the attendance rate of only 7% at meetings of the Children and Children's Welfare Promotion Association. However, Jiang Wanan said that the city government adopts the principle of "layered responsibility", and such regular meetings are mostly chaired by the deputy mayor or the responsible bureau. Whenever he encountered an incident of improper treatment, he would "immediately convene all bureaus and offices" and "personally preside over the project meeting" to manage and follow up. He also specifically cited the "Jiji case" that shocked the country as an example, saying that he personally presided over 4 project meetings on this case.
Seeing that Jiang Wanan dared to raise the case of rape, the villagers started to attack, pointing out that the case of rape occurred in December 2023. The Taipei City Social Affairs Bureau had been notified and informed that month, but the city government delayed the prosecution until March 2024, after the prosecutors indicted the case, the media exposed it, and triggered national public outrage, before it began to deal with it. The outside world has questioned why, if there was really an "immediate response and convened four meetings," there was a three-month window period in which nothing was done. It was even questioned that it was an immediate attempt to "cover the cards."
Not only that, in the early days of the child abuse case, the Taipei City Council was scheduled to hold an extraordinary meeting and ask Jiang Wanan to make a special report on the child abuse case. However, the Kuomintang city councilors collectively absented themselves and started a malicious boycott, which resulted in the adjournment of the extraordinary meeting due to insufficient attendance. The outside world was furious that Jiang Wanan had talked about how actively he had dealt with such major child abuse cases on the debate stage. Looking back at the moment of the incident, it was clear that he had used "technical escort" from fellow members of the party to avoid going to the council for supervision.
5. Taipei won the Lee Kuan Yew City Award?
During his political speech, Jiang Wanan mentioned that Taipei City won Singapore's "Lee Kuan Yew World City Prize".
According to the official information of the Lee Kuan Yew World City Award, the first prize (winner) in 2026 is actually London, England, and Taipei won the "Special Mention", alongside cities such as Antwerp in Belgium, Budapest in Hungary, Guangzhou and Tianjin in China. There is a gap between Jiang Wanan's statement and the facts, and he is suspected of exaggerating or concealing the details of the selection.
6. Tainan will follow Taipei’s lead in implementing fresh milk and free nutritious lunches for every student?
When Jiang Wanan promoted the policy of drinking fresh milk and free nutritious lunches for all students, he told Shen Boyang, "Even Mayor Huang Weizhe of your party is willing to follow suit. This is the right direction."
Tainan Mayor Huang Weizhe, who was named, immediately jumped out and slapped him in the face. Tainan promoted the dairy policy for school children as early as 2020, while Taipei only took effect in April 2025. He also bluntly said that Taipei is not the first city in the country to implement free nutritious lunches. Counties and cities including Kinmen, Lianjiang, Hsinchu, Miaoli, Nantou, Yilan and other cities have already implemented it. Jiang Wanan said that Tainan's follow-up to Taipei is simply to boost itself.
7. A food safety incident occurred at a nutritious lunch for school children. Did the city government immediately suspend business and terminate the contract with the operator?
The Chiang Kai-shek City Government hastily implemented free nutritious lunches on 8/31. Less than a week later, lunch meat in Chengyuangao, Taipei City, Central China was found to be sour and smelly, causing as many as 87 school children to suffer from diarrhea and other physical symptoms. Jiang Wanan referred to the 87 students as "a case" on the debate stage. The city government immediately terminated the business of the provider of nutritious lunches for the "case", activated a backup mechanism, and provided care and legal support to the parents of the students.
However, public opinion and relevant supervision groups slapped the group catering company in the face: some public opinion and supervision groups pointed out that the group catering manufacturer had not actually completely terminated its services to all schools, but continued to provide meals to six other high schools, and the fine amount was only 180,000 yuan. The outside world has questioned the strength of the Jiang Municipal Government.
8. Is the Dome really Chiang Wanan’s political achievement?
Chiang Wanan has always listed the completion of the Taipei Arena as an important policy achievement, and this matter was also promoted at the debate on 10/31.
However, the construction of the Arena started on April 17, 2012, that is, when Hao Longbin was in office. If we want to start from the evaluation of the construction plan, we have to start from 1991, when Huang Dazhou was the mayor, to the completion and opening in 2023, which spans 32 years and has experienced 6 Taipei mayors. Moreover, the Dome will be roughly completed by the end of 2022, before former Mayor Ke Wenzhe leaves office, and the agreement with Farglory will be completed. Jiang Wanan is basically reaping the fruits of his predecessors.
9. Is it Jiang Wanan’s credit for Huida settling in Taipei?
Huida has set up a new headquarters in Taiwan, and it is located in Beishike. Recently, Jiang Wanan has often mentioned it and promoted it as his main political achievement. In an exclusive interview, he said that he "contacted Huida CEO Huang Renxun through an engineer friend." It seemed that he had to mediate to make it happen. At yesterday's debate, Jiang Wanan naturally promoted this "political achievement" in his words.
In fact, the Ministry of Economic Affairs has approved the "Artificial Intelligence Innovation R&D Center Plan" applied by Huida as early as 2021, confirming its establishment of an AI R&D center in Taiwan. Outsiders have criticized Jiang Wanan for "putting money on his own face" and "taking credit." Huida's choice of Taipei to build its headquarters is the result of long-term layout and multi-party coordination between the central and local governments, inter-ministerial committees, and private enterprises. It is by no means the work of a single mayor.
10. Is it because of Jiang Wanan that Alex can climb to the top of Taipei 101 and top 12 and win the championship?
In addition to "drinking fresh milk, Huida settled in Taipei, and the Dome was completed and opened" and other "political achievements" that have been memorized by everyone, Jiang Wanan also talked about the "Taipei spirit" during the debate stage, mentioning American extreme rock climbing expert Alex Honnold's free climbing of 101 and the Taiwanese hero starting from Taipei to win the World Baseball Top 12 Championship. He was criticized for "forcibly exaggerating" and trying to "package it as a personal achievement."
The truth is that Honnold's challenge to 101 was approved by Taipei 101 Chairman Jia Yongjie despite huge public opinion and internal pressure, and was once criticized by people in the blue camp. As for the top 12 championship, many baseball fans criticized the hard-fought championship glory of the national team players, "What does it have to do with the mayor of Taipei?" Tsai Chi-chang, president of the National High School, also said today (11/1) that the top 12 championship is the result of the efforts of all coaches, players and the logistics team. "This is not anyone's political achievement, and I will not spend money randomly."
Of course, netizens also listed more lies. The entire post attracted nearly a thousand comments, "It doesn't matter what else he likes to exaggerate. He dared to talk about the Baolin Tea House and the Ji Ji case. There is information that can be found. I heard that the whole thing was super popular." It has nothing to do with Chiang Kai-shek." "Jinhua Junior High School clearly has no medical examinees, so there is no problem with testing anywhere." "It's really full of lies. The deeds done by others have become his political achievements. I dare not listen to what he really dares to say. His face is thicker than the walls of my house." "They continue to spread rumors that Shen Boyang is poisonous and wants to distribute drugs in the community." "They know very well that their voters will not check."
