Puma Shen

Puma Shen's public image has become almost synonymous with "countering China's cognitive warfare." A criminologist by training who has spent years researching disinformation and information manipulation, he is also a co-founder of Kuma Academy, which promotes civil defense, and he entered the Legislative Yuan in 2024 as a DPP at-large legislator. Beijing's actions have sharpened that image: in October 2024 China's Taiwan Affairs Office listed him as a "diehard Taiwan independence separatist," and in October 2025 the Chongqing police went further, accusing him of carrying out secessionist activities through Kuma Academy and opening a criminal investigation against him on suspicion of "secession." Supporters see him as a front-line figure against infiltration, the blue camp treats him as a prime target, and before his nomination some within the DPP worried that he draws too much animosity and lacks a developed platform on city affairs. On May 13, 2026, the DPP Central Executive Committee approved drafting him, and President Lai Ching-te, who also chairs the party, announced in person that Shen would challenge Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an, who is seeking re-election; the DPP has not won Taipei with its own nominee since Chen Shui-bian was elected in 1994. Cross-strait issues have also tested his consistency: in April he called the Taipei-Shanghai Twin City Forum "an opening for infiltration," then said in October that the existing exchange framework could be kept for now, prompting the city government to accuse him of contradicting himself. In TVBS polling, his gap with Chiang has narrowed from 28 percentage points in May to 8 in October; whether he can turn his sharp national-security image into trust among the capital's voters in his ability to run the city is the key to this race.