With 100 days left in the race for Taichung mayor, Democratic Progressive Party candidate Ho Hsin-chun has served up three main slabs of red meat — MRT, social welfare and youth policy — offering voters a substantive expansion of her platform while putting pressure on her incumbent-party rival.

• Ho declared she is "willing to listen, willing to lead the charge, and willing to stand up and protect Taichung," pledging to turn that into three "national firsts" in rail, welfare and industry.
• The MRT is the centrepiece: she promised to accelerate work on the Blue Line, extend the Green Line to Dakeng, and break ground on the Orange Line within her first four-year term.
• The expanded welfare offer is the most eye-catching: she proposes taking stock of the city's finances after taking office and, with the support of the city council, pushing for universal cash payments in Taichung.
• Health insurance subsidies for older residents would continue, the senior citizens' care card allowance for taxi rides would rise to NT$200 per trip, childbirth and postpartum care subsidies would be increased, and school lunch spending standards would be raised.
• She would also set up a "Youth Affairs Bureau" to integrate policy on education, employment, entrepreneurship and starting a family, and would subsidise interest on start-up loans as well as rent.

Outlook: the policy battle has begun, and attention will now turn to whether the funding behind these cash and subsidy pledges can hold up, and how the rival camp responds.