The United Daily News reported that Chang and speaker candidate Chiu I-sheng opened a joint campaign headquarters for southern Taoyuan in Zhongli, billed as the first joint rally of the Kuomintang's Taipei, New Taipei, Keelung and Taoyuan alliance. The paper said people began entering around 4 p.m. and numbers passed 25,000, a figure drawn from an aerial photo supplied by Chang's campaign office and not independently verified.

The China Times quoted organizers as saying the crowd exceeded 30,000 by about 8 p.m. The two outlets' figures differ, so the actual size is unconfirmed. Attendees included Chao Shao-kang, former county magistrate Wu Chih-yang, Taichung Mayor Lu Shiow-yen and New Taipei Mayor Hou You-yi.

Taipei candidate Chiang Wan-an, New Taipei candidate Li Szu-chuan and Keelung candidate Hsieh Kuo-liang entered together to show unity. Lu said President Lai Ching-te had also praised Chang and urged voters to re-elect him so the president would not be disappointed, while Chiang said some people talk well but his side is busy getting things done. Lai Hsiang-ling of the Taiwan People's Party also spoke in support of Chang.

Chang said his opponents like to smear and asked whether criticizing Taoyuan is justified just because it is election season. The report did not describe specific policy proposals from the rally, and no response from the Democratic Progressive Party candidate was found in the coverage reviewed.

Separately, a TVBS poll published October 17 on the Taipei debate (fieldwork October 12-15, 1,131 valid respondents, margin of error 2.9 points) showed 41 percent expecting DPP candidate Shen Po-yang to do better versus 30 percent for Chiang, an 11-point gap. By party, 92 percent of DPP identifiers favored Shen and 76 percent of KMT identifiers favored Chiang; Shen led among ages 30 to 59 and Chiang among those 60 and over. Debate expectations are not vote intention, and the first televised debate is set for noon on October 31.