The Kuomintang and the People's Party broke up in the election of Hsinchu County Mayor and Zhubei Mayor Lan Bai. The People's Party yesterday issued an order prohibiting party members from assisting the Kuomintang's candidate for Hsinchu County Mayor Xu Xinying. Violators will be subject to expulsion from the party. In response, Lin Siming, a KMT-based Hsinchu County regional legislator, bluntly stated in an interview today (7th) that Xu Xinying has not directly operated Zhubei for about 8 years. "She has been disconnected for 8 years." Lin Siming believes that in the end, the Kuomintang may win the mayor of Zhubei but lose the mayor of Hsinchu County.
The Blue and White alliance in Zhubei City and Hsinchu County failed. The People's Party held an enlarged meeting of the Central Committee and the Central Evaluation Committee yesterday. After the meeting, the People's Party Secretary-General Zhou Yu announced that because Xu Xinying was unable to fulfill her commitments and undermined the basis of mutual trust between Blue and White in the past two years, any party member who openly supports and helps the other party's candidate for Hsinchu County Mayor or Zhubei Mayor can be expelled from the party. Xu Xinying’s office responded that it respects the mechanisms of each political party, but hopes that the goals of Blue and White remain unchanged.
Lin Siming pointed out today that Zhubei's population has increased rapidly in recent years, growing to about 220,000 people, about two-thirds of which are new residents who immigrated for work, and most of them belong to young people and people in the technology industry. Xu Xinying has not directly operated Zhubei for about eight years. "She has been disconnected for eight years." How to win the recognition of these new voters and the middle voters is very important.
Lin Siming said that former People’s Party Chairman Ke Wenzhe received a high number of votes in Zhubei in the 2024 presidential election. Therefore, this group of voters who do not like blue and green and support the People’s Party or the third force will directly affect the Hsinchu County Magistrate and Zhubei Mayor elections. Now that the blue-white alliance is broken, Xu Xinying's situation among this group of voters will become more difficult. If voters question her integrity in the blue-white coordination process, points will be deducted, which may be a big fatal injury to her in future elections.
Lin Siming further pointed out that Xu Xinying is also under pressure to integrate within the blue camp. In addition to the historical baggage of quitting the KMT and competing with the KMT nominees in the past, this time the party's primaries have been very conflicting with the camp of deputy county magistrate Chen Jianxian. She has not yet been able to fully integrate, which has also caused harm to her.
Lin Siming believes that Xu Xinying does not have much time left, so she must soften her body, actively put forward her governance vision, win the approval of the central voters, and also resolve external doubts about her integrity and past political choices. Otherwise, the blue camp base has not completely returned, the white camp votes have been lost, and under the fierce pressure from the DPP Zheng Chaofang, "no matter how big the advantage is, it will not be able to withstand such a toss."
However, Li Zhehua, deputy secretary-general of the Kuomintang and chairman of the organization and development meeting, said in an interview today that the blue and white parties each have their own internal voices, and every family has its own hard-to-learn experience. Especially since the Kuomintang has so many people interested in running for the election, basically without a good, fair and open mechanism, it will actually be difficult to convince other candidates. Friends from the Kuomintang should also understand this.
Li Zhehua pointed out that each political party has its own internal constraints of so-called party discipline, which is its own system, and all respect it. In the short term, supporters may have some emotions. The top leaders of the two parties have maintained close communication, hoping to calm the dispute as much as possible and allow supporters of both parties to return to rational and pragmatic thinking. "Basically, we still look at it with cautious optimism."
