A Hong Kong-born politics professor has entered the race to lead Taiwan's frontline Kinmen islands, pitching a permanent end-of-war deal with China — a bold idea for locals, and an awkward one for both Taipei and Beijing.

• Liang Wen-tao, a politics professor at National Cheng Kung University with an Oxford doctorate, registered his run for Kinmen county chief.
• His core demand is a permanent ceasefire deal for the Fujian area and a mutual pullback of troops from Kinmen and nearby Xiamen.
• He argues no serious investment or talent will come to Kinmen while the military standoff with the Chinese city across the water remains.
• He says Kinmen is stuck as the loser in the middle, used as a bargaining chip in the fight between Beijing and Taipei.
• His platform runs to ten goals — peace, cross-strait bridge, balanced growth, environment, culture, tourism, industry, education, welfare and history — to be spelled out in policy papers.

Outlook: The demilitarization pitch will likely dominate debate in the Kinmen race, though a local county chief has no power to sign anything binding with Beijing.