CHALLENGING CHIANG?
A spokesperson said that the lawmaker’s campaign team has already quietly begun operations, including by naming a campaign manager
Staff writer, with CNA
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is expected to select Legislator Puma Shen (沈伯洋) as its nominee for Taipei mayor today, which would set up a contest with Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT). Members of the DPP’s Election Strategy Committee were notified on Monday evening that the committee would meet at 10am today, when it is expected to approve Shen’s nomination for Taipei mayor. A party spokesperson told reporters that as in the past, the election committee would make a recommendation, which would only be confirmed following approval by the DPP’s Central Executive Committee.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Puma Shen speaks to reporters on the sidelines of a legislative committee meeting at the legislature in Taipei yesterday.
Photo: Lo Pei-de, Taipei Times
However, Shen’s campaign team has already quietly begun operations, including by naming DPP Legislator Wu Szu-yao (吳思瑤) as his campaign manager, and coordinating with DPP Legislator Wu Pei-yi (吳沛憶), the DPP’s incoming Taipei branch chairwoman, the spokesperson said. DPP legislators Chen Pei-yi (陳培瑜) and Fan Yun (范雲) would be in charge of developing his campaign policy platform, the spokesperson said.
Shen, a 43-year-old freshman lawmaker known for raising awareness about the threat Taiwan faces from China, faces an uphill battle against Chiang, a popular mayor in a city where the KMT has strong support. He is also unlikely to benefit from a three-way race splitting the vote, which is what happened in 2018 and 2022, as the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) has pledged not to run candidates against KMT incumbents. Chinese-language media reported that Shen might be on the verge of announcing his candidacy after he cut his trademark shaggy hair in favor of a neater style late last month and attended campaign events with DPP city council candidates. A Taipei native, Shen was formerly an associate professor of criminology at National Taipei University. He founded the Kuma Academy civil defense organization and is a former director of Doublethink Lab, which investigates disinformation and information operations against democracies. Since joining the Legislative Yuan in 2024, the legislator-at-large has been sanctioned by Beijing and was placed under investigation for “secession” by a Chinese public security agency last year. He has some political baggage, in part due to his support for a recall campaign against 31 KMT legislators that tried to topple the opposition KMT and TPP majority in the Legislative Yuan. Not one of the KMT legislators was recalled and Shen was accused of overly politicizing national security concerns in the campaign by saying the recalls were necessary to resist China.