The Battle for Hualien: Inside the Three-Way Race Tearing Apart Taiwanese Politics

The political ground in Hualien is shifting in a major way. For over two decades, this county has been the undisputed stronghold of the Fu Kun-chi family—a one-party, one-family show. But as we look towards the 2026 magistrate election, the ground isn't just shaking; it's cracking wide open. The Kuomintang's (KMT) formal nomination of incumbent Ji’an Township chief Yu Shu-chen was supposed to be a coronation. Instead, it's lit the fuse on a powder keg of long-suppressed rivalries, creating a three-way showdown that could fundamentally redraw the political map of Eastern Taiwan.

The Anointed One Carrying the Weight of a Dynasty

Let's be brutally honest about the hand Yu Shu-chen has been dealt. Walking into this race with the KMT's official stamp is both her greatest asset and her heaviest anchor. The party brass in Taipei, led by Chairperson Cheng Li-wen, calculated that Yu's clean administrative record and her popularity in the county's most populous township made her the safest bet to keep the executive seat in blue territory. The numbers from the internal primaries backed this up; she crushed her intra-party rival, former Hualien City chief Yeh Yao-hui, by a staggering margin—51.9% to 11.8%. On paper, she's the heir apparent.

But on the ground in Hualien, the word "heir" is a political kiss of death. Yu is immediately and viscerally tagged as the "successor to Fu Kun-chi," a label she has desperately tried to shake off, arguing that her two decades in public service stand on their own merits. The problem is, perception is reality in local politics. She has shared stages with Fu and his wife, incumbent Magistrate Hsu Chen-wei. To the average voter, and more importantly, to the powerful anti-Fu bloc, she's seen as the continuity candidate. In any other election cycle, that might be enough. But this isn't any other cycle.

The Anti-Fu Front: An Unholy Alliance Takes Shape

The most explosive dynamic in this race is the anti-Fu movement coalescing around not one, but two formidable candidates. This is where the narrative of a simple KMT vs. DPP battle collapses. We're looking at a "one blue, two independents" configuration that has the potential to bleed the ruling family dry.

First, you have Hualien Council Speaker Chang Chun. If there's a general in this rebellion, it's him. Chang's feud with Fu is the stuff of local legend—a bitter fallout over the county's mining and landscape tax that got him expelled from the KMT. Since then, he has positioned himself as the tip of the anti-Fu spear. He threw his weight behind the recall movement last year, standing shoulder-to-shoulder with green legislators and activist groups. He's not just asking for votes; he's offering a crusade. His message is simple: Hualien needs to be "liberated" from the Fu family's monopolistic grip. He's scheduled to formally announce his candidacy next week, and when he does, he'll likely do so with the tacit, if not overt, blessing of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), which has made it clear they see him as the "surprise move" to break the Fu dynasty.

Then there's Wei Chia-hsien. The former Hualien City mayor and current county councilor represents a different, more nuanced kind of threat. The Wei family is a political clan in its own right, and his entry into the race complicates the anti-Fu narrative. Unlike Chang, Wei played it safer during the recall movement—supportive in spirit but never fully diving into the trenches. He's running on a platform of youthful energy (he's 48) and 21 years of administrative experience, presenting himself as a clean, technocratic alternative. But the whispers on the street are about dynasty replacement. Voters are asking: if you kick the Fus out, are you just inviting the Weis in?

The Green Wildcard and the "Skin and Flesh" Dilemma

This is where the political calculus gets incredibly sophisticated. Hualien has a unique electoral DNA: the anti-green sentiment here is structurally deeper than the anti-Fu sentiment. A candidate can survive being against Fu; a candidate cannot survive being seen as a puppet of the DPP, especially in the indigenous districts, which command over 70,000 votes and lean heavily blue.

This creates what local pundits call the "skin and flesh" dilemma. All three candidates—Yu, Chang, and Wei—crave the "flesh" of the 25% hardcore green vote. But they are terrified of wearing the "skin" of the DPP. If any of them is branded a "little green" operative, they lose the indigenous vote overnight.

Chang Chun is playing the most dangerous game here. He is openly courting the anti-Fu green bloc, relying on his history of "fighting together" with them to lock in that support. But he has to be extremely careful on the campaign trail in the mountainous districts to project a super-partisan, or even deep blue, image. Wei, on the other hand, is trying to triangulate by staying "pure," hoping his policy-wonk image will transcend colors, though his family's political baggage makes him vulnerable to attacks of building another dynasty.

As for Yu Shu-chen, her path is the steepest. She has to somehow hold the traditional blue vote together while the anti-Fu winds peel off chunks of it to Chang and Wei. Her only hope is that the "anti-green" reflex is so powerful that it eventually forces a strategic consolidation. But with the DPP seemingly content to sit this one out as kingmakers rather than participants, the anti-green bogeyman is weaker than usual.

The Stakes: Beyond the Magistrate's Office

This isn't just about who sits in the county seat. This is a referendum on the Fu family's 20-year reign. It's a test of whether a fractured opposition can unseat an entrenched machine. The KMT in Taipei is watching nervously; losing Hualien would be a catastrophic blow to its "14+" strategy for 2026. For the DPP, a Chang Chun victory would be a dream scenario—winning Hualien without even putting a name on the ballot.

Over the next eight months, the critical variables to watch are:

• The indigenous districts: Will the deep-blue voting blocs stay loyal to the Fu-backed candidate, or will they defect to an anti-Fu independent who can convincingly distance himself from the DPP?
• Chang Chun's tightrope walk: How closely will he dance with his green supporters without alienating the traditional blue base in the mountains?
• Wei Chia-hsien's identity: Can he convince voters he's a fresh start, not a recycled political brand angling for a new dynasty?
• Yu Shu-chen's autonomy: Can she, against all odds, convince Hualien that she is her own woman and not simply Fu Kun-chi's placeholder?

Right now, the smart money says this race is a three-way toss-up, and the only certainty is that the politics of this beautiful county will never be the same again.