TPP Issues Disciplinary Order Over Hsu Hsin-ying, Ending Blue-White Cooperation in Hsinchu County
The Taiwan People's Party has formally withdrawn its support for Hsu Hsin-ying, the Kuomintang's candidate for Hsinchu County magistrate, and has threatened to expel any party members who campaign for her. The move is bad news for blue-white cooperation and works against both parties' electoral prospects in Hsinchu County.
- The TPP's central leadership announced that elections at all levels in Hsinchu County will no longer be bound by the 2026 local election cooperation agreement signed with the KMT.
- The stated reason is that Hsu Hsin-ying failed to honour her commitments, damaging the mutual trust the two parties had built up over the past two years.
- Party members who publicly campaign for another party's candidate for Hsinchu County magistrate or Zhubei City mayor face expulsion from the party at the most severe.
- Chiu Chen-yuan, the TPP's candidate for Zhubei City mayor, said he fully respects and will carry out the central leadership's decision, and that he will stay in the race to the end.
- Only a day earlier, party chairman Huang Kuo-chang had cycled 90 kilometres from Zhonghe to Zhubei to canvass votes for Chiu Chen-yuan, underlining the central leadership's deep dissatisfaction with the state of the race in Hsinchu County.
Outlook: The blue and white camps have formally parted ways in Hsinchu County, and the two parties' candidates will now campaign separately, with the pressure of a split vote falling on the blue camp.