With 100 days to go until Taiwan's year-end local elections, cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Taiwan People's Party is showing subtle strains in the Taipei City Council race — a risk to the KMT's existing seats, but a chance at visibility for the TPP.

• The KMT's Taipei branch has set its line: Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an will attend only Blue-White "joint rallies" and will not appear on stage for individual TPP candidates.
• Tai Hsi-chin, chairman of the Taipei branch, said the fewer such appearances the better, and the further from polling day the better, so as to minimise the impact on the KMT's own prospects.
• The reason is straightforward: Blue and White votes flow between the two parties, and every extra vote the TPP picks up in a given district could cost the KMT a seat.
• The KMT is still aiming for an outright majority on its own, and for the first time is coordinating vote allocation across all six districts, grouping candidates by spring, summer, autumn and winter, with an added gender split in the more complicated districts.
• Chiang Wan-an has said he respects the party branch's planning and understands that he must play a certain role within the Blue-White framework, including campaigning in other cities and counties.

Outlook: what to watch next is how many rallies the TPP holds in Taipei and how many Chiang Wan-an actually attends — a thermometer for whether Blue-White cooperation can hold together until polling day.