DPP Taipei mayoral candidate Shen Boyang (沈伯洋) launched his 'Taipei Ocean Current' motorcade on the evening of Oct. 11 and announced five policies for Zhongshan and Datong districts. Late the previous night he had again clashed with Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) over how many debates to hold.
According to the Central News Agency and the United Daily News, Shen set off on the evening of the 11th from Section 4 of Yanping N. Road in Datong and drove the 'Ocean Current' vehicle to Dalongdong's Baoan Temple. Legislator Wang Shih-chien (王世堅), deputy head of his campaign headquarters, rode along, and supporters lined the route. The United Daily News said the livestream drew more than 60,000 concurrent viewers. Shen had earlier said the motorcade was not merely campaign hype.
광고 문의 · 300×250Five policies for Zhongshan and Datong
Drawing on the United Daily News and Newtalk, Shen unveiled five policies in front of Baoan Temple. The first, for northern Datong, would pilot a 'night mayor' mechanism to mediate disputes between night markets, residents and city hall, and borrow Canada's 'women's safety audit' idea so female residents can review public-space safety themselves.
The second would link Dadaocheng, the Yanping-Sanxia commercial areas, Chifeng Street, Dalongdong, the Flower Expo site and Meiji Bridge into a cultural trail served by green transport. The third is a Yuanshan 'super citizen sports center'; the fourth an 'old-home life-extension service team' pooling central and local resources to improve housing safety; the fifth an aging-in-place plan combining community care hubs, home medical care and a dementia-friendly design center.
Shen said he 'would not read from a PowerPoint,' which Newtalk read as a dig at Chiang's slide-based presentation of his Songshan Airport ideas. Wang gave Shen a 'Thor's hammer' and argued that Shen has passion while Chiang lacks it.
The debate dispute and the Chiang camp's position
The United Daily News reported that Shen handed Chiang an invitation asking for at least four debates. According to CNA, the two briefly met at a Wanhua District event on the night of the 10th; Shen said he held up four fingers and Chiang answered with one. Chiang's side explained that the gesture meant TVBS would invite both camps on Monday, the 12th, to discuss debate details.
Shen argued that a single debate would force him to cover seven or eight topics and blur the focus, and called for separate sessions by theme, such as transport and relocating Songshan Airport, plus more cross-examination. The United Daily News quoted Chiang as saying debates are not about who shouts louder; no official Chiang-camp response to the five policies was found in the reports, and the Newtalk piece carried no direct reaction from Chiang.
Separately, CNA reported that after a post by former Legislative Speaker Yu Shyi-kun was read as alluding to Chiang's family-background controversy, Shen said opponents' relatives should be off limits and that he wants to focus on policy debate.
Third view: In our assessment, the heart of the sparring is a question of form, namely how many debates there will be. On each camp's account, the challenger wants more sessions and cross-examination to test the incumbent's record, while the incumbent leaves the format to broadcaster talks, which limits late-race variables. In South Korea, too, local elections routinely bring disputes over the number and participants of debates hosted by the broadcasting debate commission. For voters, what matters more than who is right is how many real occasions there are to scrutinize policy.
