The New Taipei City mayoral race should have been a matter of local politics. Instead, due to political coordination between the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), along with maneuvering by TPP Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌), it has devolved into an absurd spectacle centered around one individual’s political survival.
Huang has publicly stated that, although the TPP ostensibly maintains the principle of forming the strongest possible team with the KMT, he personally does not rule out throwing in his lot with the campaign of Deputy Taipei Mayor Lee Shu-chuan (李四川), who has already submitted his resignation to prepare for a mayoral run. Such an absurd declaration is more than just strategic maneuvering — it exposes the loosening of party boundaries. Party identity, individual political survival and voter expectations have all become entangled in an unsolvable triangle.
The KMT-TPP political coordination is not merely a strategic arrangement, but a transactional operation conducted under the guise of democracy. In a reality where he has been largely rejected by the public, what Huang seems to care about is how to sustain his personal game of survival within the political arena. Ideals, sincerity and party loyalty have been all but stripped away, leaving only the convertibility of political capital.
What is even more absurd is that, as TPP chairman, Huang’s role should be to uphold the party’s boundaries and ideas, yet the party’s boundaries have become a strategic cushion for Huang and its symbols serve as endorsements of individual maneuvering. Under Huang’s calculations, voters’ ideals, expectations and political loyalty are reduced to mere byproducts — he delivers strategy when you expect sincerity and flexibility when you expect clear boundaries. This kind of manipulation reminds us that democracy can often become decoupled from political substance.
This election highlights a core dilemma in the nation’s local politics — the subtle, intertwined relationship between party boundaries, individual strategy and voters’ expectations. Cooperation between political parties might appear sincere, but it is, in reality, transactional. Individual statements might seem transparent and democratic, but they are merely extensions of a personal game of survival.
Voters do not just cast their ballots, they also become witnesses to and bearers of the flow of political capital. Only by understanding this can one avoid being misled by appearances.
Liu Che-ting is a writer.
Translated by Kyra Gustavsen
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