HSINCHU (TVBS News) — Hsinchu's political and economic status is highly important in Taiwan as the center of science and technology in Taiwan and home to TSMC.
The ruling Democratic Progressive Party, the opposition Kuomintang, and Taiwan's People Party are pulling out all the stops to win this year's elections.
The voting population in Hsinchu City is around 340,000, which is low, meaning that a few thousand votes can make a significant difference.
Hsinchu City, in the past, was regarded as a more "blue" KMT area. However, its demographic structure has changed rapidly in recent years, with more and more citizens relocating to the area, likely for employment.
In 2014, a DPP candidate Lin Chih-chien became the head of the city. He has since served two terms.
Looking at the last election in 2018, Lin Chih-chien won 107,612 votes, 49.5%, while the KMT candidate Hsu Ming-tsai, the former Mayor of Hsinchu, won 60,508, which accounted for 27.8%.
So the DPP was originally quite confident in winning the 2022 elections. However, this year's election is seeing a Taiwan People's Party candidate joining in on the run for the first time.
Kao Hung-an has been a legislator since 2020, and if she were to win this election, she would become the youngest mayor in Taiwan, at just 38 years old. Kao has a background in tech and worked for Foxconn. She first joined the Taiwan People's Party after Terry Gou's referral.
Leading the polls, Kao has recently been accused of appropriating wages from her assistants, which the Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau Northern Mobile Team is currently looking into.
The DPP candidate, Shen Hui-hung, was a deputy mayor of Hsinchu in 2016. Shen also served in the Taipei City Government for 20 years and has a background in transportation, having served in the Hsinchu City Government's Department of Transportation.
However, Shen Hui-hung continued to express her support for her former boss, Lin Chih-chien, who plagiarized his thesis at National Taiwan University and Chung Hua University, which caused a backlash.
And for the KMT, Hsinchu City Councilor Lin Keng-jen is in the running. Lin is an experienced city councilor with more of a "local" image and strong Hsinchu local ties.
The Hsinchu candidates have stirred up quite a buzz, and there needs to be more controversy.
Results will highlight if Hsinchu will stay green, turn back to blue, or have another Taiwan People's Party Mayor. If Kao Hung-an were to win the election, she would also become the second-ever elected mayor from the Taiwan People's Party, established in 2019.
