A public rift inside Taiwan's KMT is still open, as the party's two Hsinchu County primary rivals shared a stage for the first time since a bruising nomination fight but avoided each other completely.

• Legislator Hsu Hsin-ying and Deputy County Magistrate Chen Chien-hsien both attended a county childcare awards ceremony in Zhubei and posed in the same group photos, but had zero interaction.
• KMT chair Cheng Li-wun had said publicly that the two had not met since the primary, which she described as brutally fought.
• Hsu won the party's nomination for county magistrate by a narrow margin, and the bad blood has not been patched up.
• Party headquarters is pushing to unify the local branch ahead of the race, so far without visible success.
• The event itself honored 38 long-serving childcare workers, part of a county push to shore up staffing as birth rates fall.

Outlook: Expect continued pressure from KMT leadership to force a public reconciliation before the local elections.