Ex-DPP member Cheng, 55, joined the Kuomintang (KMT) in 2005. She says ending the DPP’s long rule in Tainan and Kaohsiung will be a top priority if elected.
By RK Shih/Staff
KAOHSIUNG — Kuomintang (KMT) chairmanship contender Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) brought her campaign to Kaohsiung’s Zuoying (左營) military dependents’ village on Wednesday. Taiwan’s Central News Agency (CNA) reported that Cheng pledged to serve as an “active, mobile party chair” and focus on rebuilding KMT strength across southern Taiwan.
Speaking before about a hundred supporters at Kaohsiung’s Hequn New Village (合群新城) and Guomao Community Center (果貿里活動中心), Cheng said a top priority if elected would be to “end the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) long rule in Tainan and Kaohsiung.”
“I won’t be a chair who stays in the Taipei office every day,” Cheng said. “We already govern four of the six major cities, but the real challenge is to break through in the south. I will be based here often — Kaohsiung and Tainan will no longer be written off.”
Earlier in the day, Cheng met with party members in Tainan to discuss grassroots concerns before traveling south for the rally. Southern Taiwan’s two largest cities have been under DPP rule for around three decades of near-continuous DPP rule.
The Kuomintang (KMT) last held the Tainan mayor’s office in 1989. The KMT’s Shih Chih-ming (施治明) served until 1997. Since then, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has maintained uninterrupted control of Tainan City. Kaohsiung briefly switched sides under former KMT Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), but returned to DPP hands following Han’s recall in 2020.
Cheng argued that the next three years would be decisive for Taiwan’s future, framing the KMT as the only party capable of restoring stability in cross-strait relations. “Under the DPP, peace and prosperity remain a question mark,” she said. “Only the KMT can correct course.”
Calling for generational renewal, Cheng emphasized that her campaign seeks to unify older and younger members and rebuild public trust. “We must transform, hand the baton to a new generation, and act as one,” she said.
