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Lawrence Chung

Taipei mayor Wayne Chiang Wan-an has emerged as the biggest political winner from an opposition protest against the government’s handling of a food safety scandal that drew what organisers said were more than 200,000 people onto the streets of the city.
The unexpectedly large turnout on Saturday appears to have given the island’s main opposition party, the Kuomintang, fresh momentum ahead of the local elections in November, and could reshape the race to become the party’s candidate in the next leadership election in 2028.
The demonstration outside the office of Taiwanese leader William Lai Ching-te was the largest opposition rally since Lai came to power two years ago.
Protesters accused the government of mishandling a scandal involving soybean salad oil found to contain excessive levels of the carcinogen benzo[a]pyrene, demanding that Lai apologise and Premier Cho Jung-tai resign.
Analysts said the rally’s significance lay in its success in uniting the KMT and the smaller opposition Taiwan People’s Party around an issue that resonated well beyond their traditional base.
It showed that food safety could mobilise people in a way that cut across party lines, according to Chang Yuan-hsiang, a political-science professor at Soochow University in Taipei.
“For Chiang, it was a political gamble and the ultimate test of his popularity and mobilisation ability,” Chang said.
He said the turnout suggested Chiang could bring people onto the streets himself rather than relying solely on the KMT’s traditional party machinery.
The government has faced mounting criticism of its handling of the scandal over the past month, with opposition politicians accusing it of being too slow to identify the source of the tainted oil and of allowing products back onto supermarket shelves before fully addressing public concerns – accusations the government rejects.
On Monday, Chiang accused the government of putting business interests ahead of public health and of failing to get to the bottom of the problem.
“The government still cannot tell people what really happened, yet it rushed the products back onto shelves,” he said, urging Lai to respond to popular anger.
Chiang also said he would welcome a no-confidence vote from the legislature against Cho if the two main opposition parties could reach an agreement.
Lai’s office said it respected people’s right to express their views and called on local government leaders to work with the central government to improve food safety.
The ruling Democratic Progressive Party also dismissed opposition claims that the rally reflected broad dissatisfaction with the government.
“Food safety should never become an electoral tool,” DPP legislator Chen Pei-yu said, accusing Chiang and KMT local leaders of staging “a political farce” instead of stepping up food safety checks in their areas.
DPP spokeswoman Lin Chu-yin described the event as “a fake protest but a real political mobilisation”, arguing that the KMT had turned the scandal into a platform to advance Chiang’s political ambitions.
Political commentator Shen Cheng-nan said the demonstration had reshaped the political narrative surrounding the scandal.
“Chiang has spent the past two years positioning himself on major political issues but this was his first decisive breakthrough, helping establish him as a potential consensus leader for the broader KMT-TPP camp,” Shen said.
The rally also underscored Chiang’s growing influence within the KMT.
Local media reported that he received a standing ovation lasting about 35 seconds after taking the stage on Saturday, surprising many senior party figures and reinforcing perceptions he had become the party’s most popular political figure.
A poll released on Monday by the Taiwan Inspiration Association found that 30 per cent of respondents favoured Chiang to be the KMT’s candidate in 2028, ahead of Taichung mayor Lu Shiow-yen on 22.7 per cent and legislative speaker Han Kuo-yu on 19 per cent.

Chiang also had the highest favourability rating among leading politicians at 48.6 per cent, ahead of Lai’s 44.9 per cent and Lu’s 40.8 per cent.
But analysts warned against reading too much into a single rally.
Chang from Soochow University said that sustaining this momentum until November’s local elections would depend on whether food safety remained a major issue, adding public attention could swiftly move on to other issues if the government dismissed senior health officials or strengthened food safety laws.
He also said “the question is what the KMT does next”, adding it needed a broader strategy.
Other analysts have said the rally will remind the DPP that issues affecting everyday life may prove more politically damaging than ideological disputes.
But they also noted that the party did not appear to feel threatened. “The DPP’s relaxed response is not without reason,” said Shih Cheng-feng, a retired political science professor from National Dong Hwa University in Hualien county.
“The party only needs to retain its core support base of around 35 per cent while consolidating support from newer and moderate green-leaning voters [the colour associated with the DPP and other independence-leaning parties] to remain electorally competitive.”


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Taipei mayor Wayne Chiang addresses the rally on Saturday. Photo: CNA

Organisers say 200,000 people took part in the protest on Saturday. Photo: CNA

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China

Politics

Mass protest may have put Taipei mayor Wayne Chiang in pole position to contest the island’s next leadership election


Mass protest may have put Taipei mayor Wayne Chiang in pole position to contest the island’s next leadership election.


William Lai Ching-te

Kuomintang

Will the heat from a cooking oil scandal help the opposition in Taiwan?

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Mass protest may have put Taipei mayor Wayne Chiang in pole position to contest the island’s next leadership election

Mass protest may have put Taipei mayor Wayne Chiang in pole position to contest the island’s next leadership election