The race for Hsinchu County Magistrate is heating up, with Democratic Progressive Party candidate Cheng Chao-fang campaigning on his record, while his opponents each stake out ground on childcare and local oversight.

• Zhubei City Mayor Cheng Chao-fang has entered the Hsinchu County Magistrate race, arguing that voters should look at policies and performance rather than party affiliation.
• Responding to recent online polls and mutual attacks, he said that destroying an opponent will not make one's own achievements, nor will it build a city.
• He held up the libraries, markets, parking lots, parks and social welfare projects built in Zhubei over the past three years and more as a template, arguing that the same approach can be scaled up to the whole county.
• Kuomintang candidate and legislator Hsu Hsin-ying, meanwhile, is campaigning on childcare policy, pledging to push for legislation covering care by relatives, higher pay for childcare workers and mechanisms to encourage long-term service.
• New Power Party Chair Wang Wan-yu appeared in Zhubei in support of the party's candidates for county councillor and city representative, calling on voters to assess candidates by their governing ability.

Outlook: A three-way contest is taking shape in Hsinchu County, and the campaign's focus will now turn to Zhubei's governance record and to the contest over livelihood policies such as childcare and local infrastructure.