The focal points of the attack-and-defence battle in Taiwan's 2026 local elections have been fixed on New Taipei and Kaohsiung. For the blue-white camp, this is a fight to defend their party chairs that they cannot afford to lose.

• Ko Wen-je said bluntly that if the DPP takes New Taipei, KMT chair Cheng Li-wun must step down.
• Conversely, if the blue camp captures Kaohsiung, DPP chair Lai Ching-te would probably also have to be replaced.
• Ko Wen-je went to Yangming Market in Kaohsiung's Sanmin District to canvass the streets for TPP city council candidate Lin Yu-kai and KMT mayoral candidate Ko Chih-en, and was warmly received by the stallholders.
• He criticised the blue-white camp's current campaign as "too dull", saying no war has ever been won by playing defence, and suggested that Ko Chih-en invite Huang Kuo-chang to serve as her campaign director-general.
• Ko Chih-en, for her part, stressed that "the blue and white camps simply must unite", and that her campaign strategy going forward would be more direct.

Outlook: Blue-white cooperation will grow closer, and the electoral situations in Kaohsiung and New Taipei are bound to become the touchstone for the political lives of both party chairs.