Kuomintang (KMT) and Taiwan People's Party (TPP) cooperation in the Zhubei mayoral race collapsed, and both parties' candidates registered for the race on September 3. At the same day's registration of KMT Hsinchu County magistrate candidate Hsu Hsin-ying, former county magistrate Fan Chen-tsung told KMT chair 
Cheng Li-wun to her face that if the county were lost, "the biggest culprit is you."
What did Fan say? Fan called the KMT-TPP integration problem in Zhubei Cheng's "strategic error," saying the party had neither finished uniting internally nor cooperated with the TPP, and that as chair she "cannot shirk responsibility," CNA reported. A victory, he said, would be to her credit. Fan, who once governed the county for the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) but now backs the KMT, also asked Cheng whether she had ever come to support the KMT before, and kept speaking when Hsu and others signalled him to stop, the Liberty Times reported.
How did the KMT respond? Cheng said the race was heading toward a KMT-DPP showdown with KMT-TPP cooperation. To Fan, she replied: "Yes, every ounce of strength has been used," CNA reported. County magistrate Yang Wen-ke said Fan had voiced support for Hsu in a humorous way. The next day, KMT vice chair Lee Chien-lung described Fan's mock slap at Cheng as "the deeper the love, the sterner the rebuke," the Liberty Times reported.
Who does the TPP blame? TPP chair Huang Kuo-chang said "the one who broke the promise is Hsu Hsin-ying." Hsu said in a September 4 interview that the two parties never agreed to cede the Zhubei mayoralty and that the TPP had given no concrete commitment to back a primary. On September 5 Huang said: "Breaking your word is outrageous enough; if you keep lying in public, it will only get uglier for you." Her camp replied that she never promised anything she had no authority to decide, the Liberty Times reported.
Where do the Zhubei candidates stand? TPP candidate Chiu Chen-yuan said the core value of politics is integrity. KMT candidate Wu Hsu-chih said cooperation had not yet collapsed and that he remained open to integration, including through landline and mobile polling, CNA reported. The DPP's Tseng Sheng-kai also registered. The DPP first won Zhubei in 2022, and spillover from the Hsinchu Science Park has given the city a young, highly educated, high-income electorate with weaker traditional party loyalty, public broadcaster PTS reported.
Figures referenced: Cheng Li-wun. — JudgeMarket.
