Cheng Li-wun, chair of Taiwan's main opposition party, has turned a war commemoration in Kinmen into a campaign declaration — a mobilising signal for Kuomintang supporters, and an added source of uncertainty for cross-strait relations.

• On the 68th anniversary of the 823 Artillery Battle, KMT Chair Cheng Li-wun travelled to Kinmen for the first time in her capacity as party leader to pay tribute to the officers and soldiers killed in action.
• She publicly called for a sweeping victory in this year's local elections and a return to power the year after next, with the goal of having a KMT president come to Kinmen for the commemoration on the 70th anniversary.
• Chen Yu-jen, the KMT's candidate for Kinmen county magistrate, stressed that "without Kinmen there would be no Taiwan," and noted her push last year to make 823 a national day of commemoration.
• Two independent candidates, by contrast, campaigned on a peace platform, arguing that Kinmen should be turned from the front line of war into a buffer zone between the two sides of the strait, and even proposing the signing of an armistice agreement and the building of a peace prayer wall.

Outlook: The Kinmen race will pit two lines against each other — "preparing for war" versus a "peace buffer" — and the year-end local elections will serve as a prelude to the 2028 presidential contest.