A Taiwanese student crossing out one mayor's name on her diploma and having an opposition candidate sign it instead has turned into a fight over whether that broke the law — mostly noise, but it shows how heated the Taipei mayoral race is getting.

• A high school student in Hsinchu struck out Mayor Kao Hung-an's signature on her junior high diploma and asked DPP Taipei mayoral candidate Puma Shen to sign it; he wrote "your mayor."
• Critics said this could count as forging or altering an official document under Taiwan's criminal code.
• DPP lawmaker Chuang Jui-hsiung said there is no crime because the signature creates no legal document and harms no one — it is just a political statement.
• The one real risk: if the student ever submitted that diploma for school credit or an application, the altered copy could cause trouble.
• Shen said the row should stay on city policy and that the student should not be attacked.

Outlook: Expect the argument to fade as a legal matter but keep feeding attacks between the DPP and KMT camps as the Taipei race heats up.