DPP to back Puma Shen for Taipei mayor Wednesday

Taipei, May 12 (CNA) The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is expected to select Legislator Puma Shen (沈伯洋) as its nominee for Taipei mayor on Wednesday, setting up a contest with incumbent Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) of the Kuomintang (KMT).

Members of the DPP's Election Strategy Committee were notified Monday evening that the committee would meet at 10 a.m. Wednesday, and it was expected to approve Shen's nomination for Taipei mayor.

Asked to comment, a party spokesperson told CNA that as in the past, the elections committee would make a recommendation, which would only be confirmed following approval by the DPP's Central Executive Committee.

The spokesperson noted, however, that Shen's campaign team had already quietly begun operations, including by naming lawmaker Wu Szu-yao (吳思瑤) as campaign manager, and coordinating with lawmaker and incoming DPP Taipei branch chair Wu Pei-yi (吳沛憶).

Legislators Chen Pei-yi (陳培瑜) and Fan Yun (范雲) will be in charge of developing his campaign policy platform, the spokesperson said.

Shen, a 43-year-old freshman lawmaker known for raising awareness about the threat Taiwan faces from China, will face an uphill battle against Chiang, a popular mayor in a city where the KMT has strong support.

He is also unlikely to benefit from a three-way race splitting the vote, as happened in 2018 and 2022, since the Taiwan People's Party (TPP) has pledged not to run candidates against KMT incumbents.

Local media started speculating that Shen was running after he cut his trademark shaggy hair in favor of a neater style in late April and began appearing at campaign events with DPP city council candidates.

A Taipei native, Shen was formerly an associate professor of criminology at National Taipei University, founder of the Kuma Academy civil defense organization, and former director of Doublethink Lab, which investigates disinformation and information operations against democracies.

Since being elected to the Legislative Yuan in 2024, he has been sanctioned by Beijing and was placed under investigation for "secession" by a Chinese public security agency last year.

He does carry some political baggage, in part due to his strong vocal support for a recall campaign against 31 KMT legislators that tried to topple the opposition KMT and TPP majority in the Legislative Yuan.

Not one of the KMT legislators was recalled, and Shen was criticized at the time for overly politicizing national security concerns in the campaign by saying the recalls were necessary to resist China, an argument many voters did not accept.