Actress Chen Chu-yin registers to run for New Taipei City Council after taking up mainland Chinese residency
A Taiwanese martial-arts actress who publicly gave up her Taiwan household registration and health insurance to settle in China has returned to run for local office, alarming voters who see it as a security risk.
- Chen Chu-yin, a former stunt double who moved to Jiangsu in 2020 and married a Chinese husband, has registered as a Labor Party candidate for New Taipei City Council in the Xizhi, Jinshan and Wanli district.
- She once said she wanted to move her household registration to China and drop her Taiwan health coverage, brushing off the government's move to cancel her registration.
- Critics online call her party pro-unification and warn she could become a Beijing foothold inside Taiwan's elected institutions.
- She has quietly been campaigning for months — visiting neighborhood chiefs, joining temple events, and running a local photo-archive project to build grassroots support.
- The case lands in the middle of a busy local election season, with Taipei's mayoral race, Changhua and Kaohsiung contests, and a fight over slashed rail funding for New Taipei all heating up.
Outlook: Expect scrutiny of her eligibility and of how Taiwan's election rules handle candidates with mainland residency to intensify as the vote nears.