Chiang Wan-an and Puma Shen clash over anti-drugs as Kaohsiung mayor intervenes.

The Taipei mayoral race continues to heat up, with anti-drug policies becoming a core focal point of confrontation between the blue and green camps. Incumbent Kuomintang (KMT) Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an, who is seeking re-election, and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Taipei mayoral candidate Shen Po-yang recently engaged in a fierce debate over Taipei City's anti-drug performance and strategies. This policy offense and defense not only highlights the importance of the capital's public security and social safety net, but has also attracted the attention of mayors from other cities and counties. Among them, Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chi-mai responded to the dispute between the two sides, emphasizing that doing a good job in drug prevention is inherently a core responsibility of the Taipei mayor, and took the initiative to share Kaohsiung City's practical experience in drug investigation, prevention, and counseling, sparking high-level political discussion.

The debate over the anti-drug issue stemmed from challenges to Taipei City's effectiveness in promoting drug prevention work. During the campaign, Shen Po-yang raised questions regarding Taipei City's campus drug prevention, blind spots in community security, and the proliferation of emerging drugs, arguing that the incumbent city government still has loopholes and deficiencies in the construction of its anti-drug network. In response, Chiang Wan-an's campaign fiercely counterattacked, enumerating the city government's specific achievements in recent years in police investigations, the operation of the anti-drug hazard prevention center, and cross-departmental cooperation, emphasizing that the Taipei City Government adopts a zero-tolerance attitude toward drugs and rebuking the opponent's criticism as an electoral tactic that obscures the efforts of frontline civil servants and police colleagues. Both sides held fast to their own interpretations of policy details and data, making the anti-drug issue a fiercely contested battleground in the capital's mayoral race.

Regarding the anti-drug offensive and defensive in the Taipei mayoral election, Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chi-mai stated in a media interview that anti-drug work is the top priority of local government public security work. As the capital, the Taipei City Government has relatively abundant resources and should all the more comprehensively execute drug prevention work, which is not only the expectation of citizens but also an inescapable duty for the mayor of Taipei. Chen Chi-mai's remarks pointed out the direct responsibility of local chief executives in maintaining public security, and also expanded the election debate in Taipei into a cross-county and city comparison of governance capabilities. In Taiwan's democratic politics, it is not uncommon for local chief executives to express views on other cities' governance, especially when national public security and social safety issues are involved; the governance experience of special municipality mayors often serves as a reference or comparison standard for other cities.

To provide concrete suggestions, Chen Chi-mai cited Kaohsiung City's practical experience in promoting anti-drug work as a reference. He pointed out that the Kaohsiung City Government adopts a comprehensive approach of "tracing sources upward and taking root downward" in its anti-drug strategy. On the one hand, it relies on police units to carry out forceful crackdowns, combining with prosecutors and investigators to completely dismantle drug smuggling and sales networks; on the other hand, it strengthens the social safety net, conducting comprehensive preventive education ranging from campuses and families to communities. Kaohsiung City has established a cross-departmental Drug Prevention Bureau, integrating health, education, police, and social welfare resources, focusing not only on investigating drug users, but placing greater emphasis on addiction treatment, psychological counseling, and employment assistance to reduce the recidivism rate. Chen Chi-mai emphasized that drug prevention cannot rely solely on the police making arrests; it requires the mutual coordination of frontend prevention and backend counseling mechanisms to truly achieve the goal of eradicating the hazards of drugs.

From the perspective of political development and local governance, Chen Chi-mai's remarks regarding the anti-drug controversy in Taipei not only demonstrate his confidence in his own administrative achievements, but also highlight the DPP's joint defense line and policy discourse in the island-wide elections. By sharing the Kaohsiung experience, the pan-green camp attempted to elevate the anti-drug issue from a mere war of words to the height of governance capability and the construction of an urban safety net, thereby testing the administrative efficiency of incumbent Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an. As the election enters a white-hot phase, how Taipei City's anti-drug policies can be refined and how to respond to supervision and suggestions from all sectors will continue to test the city government team's crisis management and policy execution capabilities. Furthermore, this policy dialogue across the north and south allows voters to reflect anew on the substantive political platforms and commitments of various political parties regarding social safety and drug prevention, moving beyond the political rhetoric meant for entertainment.