Taiwan's opposition alliance between the KMT and the Taiwan People's Party has broken down in Hsinchu, a setback for both parties' hope of teaming up against the ruling DPP in the year-end local elections.

• The TPP says the KMT and its Hsinchu County magistrate candidate Hsu Hsin-ying broke promises, wrecking two years of trust between the two parties.
• Any TPP member who publicly backs or campaigns for another party's candidate in Hsinchu County or Zhubei City can now be thrown out of the party.
• The TPP is no longer bound by its 2026 joint-governance deal with the KMT in Hsinchu and will pick its own partners there.
• Its own Zhubei mayoral pick, Chiu Chen-yuan, gets the party's sole backing, and members are ordered to fall in line behind him.
• Hsu's office says it respects the decision but still wants the alliance to hold, with the goal of winning in 2026 and removing the DPP in 2028.

Outlook: The split makes a united opposition front in Hsinchu unlikely this year and raises doubts about whether the wider KMT-TPP pact survives into the 2028 presidential race.