New Taipei Mayoral Race Heats Up as Blue and Green Rivals Clash at Temple

As the mayoral race in New Taipei City continues to heat up, potential successors from various political parties are making frequent moves, spreading the smoke of electoral battle to the grassroots level well in advance. The Ciyou Temple, a spiritual center in Xinzhuang District, hosted a thank-you banquet on the 8th with dozens of tables set up, gathering local dignitaries and devotees. While seemingly a traditional local religious and thanksgiving event, the banquet actually became a highly contested political arena for both the Blue and Green camps. Incumbent Taipei City Deputy Mayor Li Sichuan, widely seen as having a strong chance of representing the Kuomintang (KMT) in the election, and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Su Qiaohui, who is actively laying groundwork in New Taipei City, both attended the grand event. Although both deliberately projected a pro-people image and spared no effort in canvassing votes and making appeals to grassroots citizens, careful coordination of their arrival times meant the two did not cross paths directly or interact at all throughout the event. This created a subtle competitive dynamic of "the king does not meet the king," highlighting the intensifying battle for the New Taipei mayoral seat.

At the banquet, Li Sichuan's movements drew close attention from local political circles. As a political appointee with an engineering background, Li has long been known in politics for his execution capability and pragmatic style. His attendance at the Xinzhuang Ciyou Temple event was interpreted by outsiders as the opening move of his campaign for New Taipei mayor and a trip to consolidate his local support base. When greeting and canvassing votes from local residents, Li made his stance clear, emphasizing that if given the opportunity to take his career to the next level, he would undoubtedly make an all-out effort to take over the unfinished municipal projects of incumbent Mayor Hou You-yi and carry forward New Taipei City's existing development blueprint. Such remarks not only directly linked his efforts to the current city government team's performance—attempting to inherit the grassroots support base accumulated by Hou You-yi over the years—but also extended an olive branch to voters in the Xinzhuang area, promising to bring more concrete construction achievements to New Taipei City with his rich engineering and administrative experience, thereby demonstrating strong ambition and a steady posture for succession.

On the other hand, DPP Legislator Su Qiaohui, who has cultivated deep roots in the locality for years, was by no means outdone, displaying formidable grassroots mobilization capabilities and local connectivity advantages. Having long represented New Taipei City's Shulin, Yingge, and parts of Xinzhuang District in the legislature, Su is intimately familiar with local affairs and public opinion dynamics. At the banquet, she shuttled between tables to greet residents and solicit their support, displaying a high degree of approachability. Unlike Li Sichuan's focus on engineering construction and administrative succession, Su's appeal leaned more toward cultural heritage and local identity. She called upon the residents of Xinzhuang, emphasizing her long-standing care and cultivation of the locality, and pledged to wholeheartedly pass on Xinzhuang's profound local culture in the future while combining it with innovative thinking from the new generation to strive for Xinzhuang. By doing so, Su not only consolidated her traditional Green camp voter base but also actively reached out to independent voters and the younger generation, attempting to break through the Blue camp's local defense line via soft cultural and local cards.

As a historic Mazu temple in the area, the Xinzhuang Ciyou Temple has always been a battleground for blessings and vote-canvassing revered by politicians in New Taipei City. Although Li Sichuan and Su Qiaohui cleverly staggered their times this time, avoiding a direct encounter inside the venue and staging a head-to-head comparison, the pattern of "arriving successively and canvassing votes separately" concealed extremely sophisticated political calculations and staff operations. On the eve of the election entering its white-hot stage, any public appearance together could be amplified in interpretation or even become the focus of media clashes. Therefore, both camps adopted a strategy of "communicating only with voters and not giving opponents the spotlight," each playing to their strengths at the banquet—Li played the construction card while Su played the cultural card. Although they had zero interaction, they invisibly completed a high-intensity political positioning battle, fully reflecting the competitive structure of the current New Taipei mayoral race.

Observing the current landscape of the New Taipei City mayoral election, with incumbent Mayor Hou You-yi's term soon coming to an end, New Taipei City—Taiwan's most populous special municipality—has undoubtedly become the top priority for both major political parties in their 2026 deployment. For the KMT, an individual with a popular mandate and administrative prestige is needed to continue ruling power; Li Sichuan's extensive experience as deputy mayor across Taipei and New Taipei and his reputation for construction naturally make him a highly anticipated strategic chess piece within the Blue camp. Meanwhile, the DPP is actively deploying rising politicians such as Su Qiaohui, attempting to overturn the Blue-Green political map that has persisted in New Taipei City for years. As seen from this "zero-interaction clash" at the Ciyou Temple thanksgiving banquet, whether regarding the continuation of construction or cultural heritage, both camps have fully launched grassroots tours and issue-based battles. Future elections are bound to become even more fierce and will influence the political trajectory of Taiwan's overall political landscape.