Taiwan elections: could rising KMT star Wayne Chiang be a presidential contender?

“Everyone, we did it,” an emotional Wayne Chiang Wan-an told a cheering crowd on Saturday after he declared victory in the Taipei mayoral election, an achievement that observers said had consolidated his status as a rising political star.

Chiang, a great-grandson of Taiwan’s late leader Chiang Kai-shek, handed the century-old main opposition Kuomintang party the election prize by winning back the capital city eight years after outgoing mayor Ko Wen-je, of the smaller Taiwan People’s Party, took over the city government in 2014.

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In one of several local elections held on Saturday, Chiang defeated two formidable opponents – former health minister Chen Shih-chung of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party, and Huang Shan-shan, Taipei’s deputy mayor, who ran as an independent.

The 43-year-old former legislator captured more than 575,000 votes, beating Chen’s 434,000 and Huang, who had 342,000 votes, by comfortable margins. He also won all but one of the 12 constituent districts, according to results released by the Central Election Commission.

“The victory belongs to every citizen of Taipei. It is a victory for light over darkness and for good over evil,” said Chiang, who will become Taipei’s youngest ever mayor.

The pandemic may have played a major role in Chiang’s election success. Chen, his closest rival, had been the head of the Central Epidemic Command Centre before joining the Taipei race. But analysts said voters disapproved of Chen’s anti-Covid-19 policy.

“Chiang and his campaign aides had in the later stage turned the focus to criticising Chen and President Tsai Ing-wen, who had asked Chen to run, for failing to protect the health of the public, because of their poor anti-Covid and vaccine supply measures,” said Juang Wen-jong, a public policy management professor at Shih Hsin University in Taipei.

He said the shift in campaign strategy also took the spotlight away from Huang.

Chen and the Tsai government had been sharply criticised for allegedly blocking the import of vaccines to protect locally developed ones, which had required more approval time for emergency authorisation before they were allowed into the market.

Juang said Chiang’s relatively young age of 43, compared with Chen, 69, and the 53-year-old Huang, as well has family background, also helped secure Chiang’s win.

But despite his relative youth and political pedigree, Chiang’s chances of replicating another sweeping election victory in the 2024 presidential elections might be slim. Observers said he would need further grooming in government administration before joining that race, even though the mayoral post has often been considered the best springboard to the island’s top post.

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The young new face of the KMT hails from a once powerful political family. His great-grandfather Chiang Kai-shek was the late Kuomintang leader, who set up an interim government in Taiwan after being defeated by the Chinese communists in a civil war in 1949.

A corporate lawyer in the United States, Wayne Chiang returned to Taiwan in 2013 and later ran for a seat in Taiwan’s legislature. He had been rated as the best and most attentive lawmaker by local political monitoring groups during his two terms as a lawmaker.

Observers said his family background was neither a liability for Chiang, nor was it an asset.

“Voters in Taipei who are relatively more educated tend to have their own views and will not be swayed easily, especially when it comes to family history,” said Li Da-jung, a professor of international relations and strategic studies at Tamkang University in New Taipei.

He said even though older-generation KMT supporters might vote for Chiang because he is a descendant of the late Chiang Kai-shek, the image and influence of the Chiang family had diminished over time, especially after the DPP government established a so-called justice-redeemed organisation to find fault of the late Chiang, whom it regards as a dictator and murderer.

Still, Li said Wayne Chiang’s win in Taipei was a big boost to the KMT’s resounding victory in the local elections, which saw it taking control of 13 of the 21 cities and counties.

“But for him to be seen as a presidential candidate in 2024, it would be too soon to make any conclusion,” Li said.

“He will be in office as mayor for just one year, and will need more grooming before he is experienced enough to run,” Li said, adding Wayne Chiang would have a better chance in 2028.