Can the Xunke P model really change the situation in Taipei? Writer Zhao Xiaohui reveals the key to Shen Boyang’s election victory

Taipei mayoral candidate Shen Boyang went to Neihu to visit former Speaker Chen Jianzhi on the 5th. After an hour of talks, Chen Jianzhi personally sent Shen Boyang downstairs and was interviewed together. (File photo)

On the afternoon of the 5th, Democratic Progressive Party Taipei mayoral candidate Shen Boyang paid a visit to former Taipei City Council Speaker Chen Jianzhi from the Kuomintang. The process lasted about an hour. In this regard, writer Zhao Xiaohui analyzed that retired political bosses took off their titles and turned into underground commanders. They have control over a huge network of farmers and fishermen associations, palace and temple chairmen, and grassroots leaders, and have influence on elections by tens of thousands of votes. Novice candidates often run into obstacles due to a lack of trust. A phone call or private compliment from a senior executive is the most important "credit guarantee" and pass.

"Don't look down on retired political leaders. They are just 'retired' and not 'passed'. They shed their titles and become underground commanders. They can influence tens of thousands of votes in the election and determine the fate of the candidates." Zhao Xiaohui wrote today that there are many cases in the history of elections where candidates received help from local bosses and finally won the election. For example, former Legislative Yuan Wang Jinping planned the "Three Mountain Campaign" (Fengshan, Qishan, and Gangshan) for Han Kuo-yu, who was competing for Kaohsiung mayor at the time, in 2018. He used the 40-year-old peasant association system, the strength of local gangsters, and a huge business network to spend his own money and mobilize the grassroots. As a result, the local farmers and fellow villagers in Fengshan and Gangshan, who were originally unable to be suppressed by the Kuomintang, flooded the "Three Mountains Campaign" and finally turned Kaohsiung from green to blue.

Zhao Xiaohui bluntly said, "The same goes for Ko Wenzhe who ran in the 2014 Taipei mayoral election!" When Ke Wenzhe first ran for the election, he was overwhelmingly labeled as a "royal citizen, dark green, and ideological fanatic" by the Kuomintang and Lian Shengwen camps, which made the military, civil servants and teachers in other provinces fearful. Therefore, Ko Wenzhe actively sought help from People First Party Chairman James Soong and publicly praised the political achievements of former KMT Taipei Mayor Huang Dazhou, successfully breaking the hostility of the deep blue middle-class voters.

Zhao Xiaohui believes that when Shen Boyang walked into the living room of former KMT speaker Chen Jianzhi today, he was repeating the tactics of Ke Wenzhe in 2014. The Blue Camp labeled Shen Boyang as a "general recall and radical witch hunt", so he went into the home of Chen Jianzhi, the former Speaker of the Blue Camp, to talk about government conflicts and cross-party governance. Chen Jianzhi's words "both of them are excellent" are equivalent to giving Shen Boyang a "non-toxic certification". This trick of using force is exactly the same as that of Ke Wenzhe back then.

Zhao Xiaohui analyzed that Ke Wenzhe did not rely solely on green camp mobilization to win that year, but relied on thousands of "wild Ke fans" to spontaneously write articles, change pictures, and search for opponents' lies on PTT and Facebook, forming an unstoppable Internet tsunami. Nowadays, Shen Boyang has replicated the "ocean current phenomenon" even more violently on the Threads social platform. Thousands of young people, mothers, and white-collar workers in science and technology have spontaneously created for him twice on the community, actively dismantling his long essays into short videos, and launching a living room revolution of "bringing parents to vote."

Zhao Xiaohui believes that the "Ocean Current", a powerful independent mobilization of citizens, is the original force that turned Taipei City upside down 12 years ago. The historical position that Shen Boyang is currently in is exactly the critical point where Ke Wenzhe pushed the score into the "five-five wave deep water zone" three weeks before the election in 2014. As long as he can maintain this sense of professional security in "cross-party problem solving" until the last second, 22 days later, Shen Boyang will be able to replicate the 2014 tsunami that changed the mayor of Taipei.

For related news, please see:

Meet with former Speaker Chen Jianzhi and Shen Boyang: Please benefit the municipal government instead of pulling out the pile.

Shen Boyang revealed that he and Chen Jianzhi "talked about this matter for an hour" and revealed the content of the conversation: I learned a lot

Be cautious and fearful night, Shen Boyang merges with Su Qiaohui to urge votes

Following up on Shen Boyang and Jiang Wanan met with Chen Jianzhi

Taipei mayoral candidate Shen Boyang went to Neihu to visit former Speaker Chen Jianzhi on the 5th. After an hour of talks, Chen Jianzhi personally sent Shen Boyang downstairs and was interviewed together. (File photo)

Shen Boyang paid a visit to Chen Jianzhi. (Provided by Shen Boyang’s campaign office)