An Evening in DPP Legislator Candidate Hsieh Pei-fen’s Campaign

With less than a week before Taiwan’s 2020 presidential and legislative election, on-the-ground work is intensifying. Taipei’s Da’an district, where the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has always faced uphill battles, is no different.

In 2016, former student activist from the 1990s Wild Lily Movement and former head of the Social Democratic Party Fan Yun ran in the election, but lost by ten points. This year, the DPP is fielding Harvard graduate Hsieh Pei-fen (no relation) after nominating Fan as one of its party list legislators.

I visited the district on December 31st 2019 to see how it is going for them.

Two claw machines filled with Winnie the Pooh dolls caught my attention as soon as I arrived at the office. “Resist China, Protect Taiwan,” the sign says, inviting passersby to enter and have a try at grabbing Pooh, a parody of Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

Street sweeping

On the last day of 2019, Luo Wen-jia, Secretary-General of the DPP, arrived at the campaign HQ to join Hsieh’s team “sweep the streets.”

Hsieh and her team walked through a section of old town Taipei, entering shops, shaking hands, and saying hello to her voters. Many shops in the area hung up the ROC flag, whose dark blue and red contrasted with the light greenness of the Hsieh campaign.

(By Milo Hsieh)

The number of ROC flags seen in a given district is often correlated with how much the district skews towards the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), the DPP’s rival. A part of the ROC flag is, afterall, the KMT’s party emblem.

Unsurprising in Taipei, rain started to fall. “Regardless of storm and rain, Hsieh Pei-fen goes on,” the staff carrying the loudspeaker started to say. Hsieh is running in a district where around two-third of all voters are KMT supporters.

Panel discussion

After returning to the campaign HQ, she received a team of American students from St. Thomas University who are visiting Taiwan to observe the election.

She sat on a panel along with Chien Shu-pei, Taipei City Councilor, Dr. Hans Stockton, Professor at St. Thomas University, and Elaine Tsao, associate at the DPP’s Washington Mission.

Chien started off the conversation by introducing Hsieh’s experience with diplomacy. Hsieh has served as a diplomat to the UN for Tuvalu, and has a degree from both Harvard’s Law School and the Kennedy School of Government.

“What is the biggest challenge to Taiwan for getting into international organizations?” Hsieh points to China’s expansionism as a threat. Hsieh told the audience that though Washington had been hopeful to integrate China through contact and economic ties, China has in fact turned more authoritarian. Authoritarian China has been compressing democratic Taiwan’s international space, Hsieh added.

“What challenges have you faced being a young competitor?” another asked. Hsieh is well aware of the fact that her district, Da’an, has voted for a KMT legislator consistently. Regardless, Hsieh believes that the current political environment is different. Since the start of the Hong Kong protests, many in Taiwan have seen how “one country, two system” does not work for the people. Under “one country,” Hsieh claims, there is not really “two systems,” and opposition are met with violence and suppression. Therefore, “Protect the Country, Save Taiwan” is a slogan of the DPP this election.

Hsieh applauds young Taiwanese for standing up for themselves. She believes that young people in Taiwan are the future of Taiwan. Though Hsieh admits that she is a newcomer, having only been running in Da’an for four months, she believes that she can better connect and understand with this group of people. She hopes to address issues like high housing prices and lack of growth of opportunities for young people in her district if elected.

“Do you have any plans to represent or increase the presence of women in the Taiwanese government?” A student added.

Councilor Chien responded by pointing out that Hsieh’s appointment as candidate in Da’an is a sign that the party wishes to see more participation. Chien believes that women in Taiwan often face a challenge balancing work and life, and discrimination amongst women remain rampant.

Hsieh pointed out that President Tsai herself often face sexist comments. According to Hsieh, male politicians in powerful positions often say things like “women can use the bedroom to pull voters to their side” and criticize women who do not fit into traditional gender roles. Hsieh hopes to change these social attitudes, stating that nobody should be discriminated against based on their gender.

(Milo Hsieh)

Social media

The role of social media has been crucial for election campaigns in 2020. Hsieh is among the many candidates who live-stream nearly all of their public events. Both the panel discussion and the street-sweeping can be watched live as they are being conducted. They are also kept on the record, so anyone could catch up on an event even if they could not watch it live.

Though Hsieh is a relatively young candidate, she has a background in international politics and national security, having served on Taiwan’s National Security Council. Despite so, Da’an is a relatively conservative part of Taipei, and voters Hsieh met during “street sweeping” are mostly seniors living their everyday life.

Da’an has an interesting mix of both renovated areas and old apartments. Even though Da’an appears to be a part of town where young people hang out, a campaign staff told me that most young people do not reside in the district and therefore do not have a vote.

Party and campaign staff in “hardship districts” like Da’an district are getting up as early as 7:30 AM to stand on the streets and going home as late as 11 PM or later on campaign days. Campaigns do not stop on weekends and will be running until the day before the election.

On January 11st, we will see whether Hsieh’s campaign in the traditionally KMT-voting district has been effective.

(Feature photo by Milo Hsieh)