Both major candidates for Taichung mayor are pushing for Taiwan to build its own basic trainer aircraft, a positive sign for local defense workers and suppliers.

• KMT candidate Chiang Chi-chen wants the new basic trainer jet built at home by AIDC rather than bought abroad, keeping orders, technology, and jobs in Taiwan.
• He tied defense manufacturing to industrial policy, arguing it should also lift wages and pull "physical AI" work — drones, unmanned boats, robots — into Taichung.
• Chiang proposed an "AI empowerment academy" run with companies, universities, and research bodies to retrain existing workers and certify new skills.
• DPP candidate Ho Hsin-chun backed defense self-reliance too, promising more money for worker training, AI courses, and health checks through the unions.
• Both spoke at the AIDC union's delegate meeting, making the state-linked aerospace maker an early battleground in the Taichung race.

Outlook: Defense self-reliance and drone manufacturing look set to be a central theme of the Taichung mayoral campaign, with AIDC's workforce a key swing group.