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The Tainan Clique, which belongs to the direct line of Taiwan leader Lai Ching-te, has encountered problems one after another. The opposition party generally believes that this is a signal of a counterattack by the DPP's "anti-Lai faction", which also involves the competition in the DPP's primary election in the 2026 "nine-in-one" election. Lai Ching-te reminded at the DPP Central Standing Committee yesterday (21st) not to talk about county and city mayor elections at this point in time. But after all, it is not Lai Ching-te who is being elected. Whether his call can effectively curb the gradually heating up county and city mayor disputes within the DPP remains to be seen.

Lin Yi-jin is under judicial investigation for fraudulently claiming assistant fees. A political figure in Tainan said that with one year and 11 months left before the DPP's 2026 county and city mayoral nominations, "some people can't wait and are taking drastic measures now." The internal struggle of the Green Camp is aimed at 2026. Before Lin Yi-jin, former Executive Yuan spokesman Chen Zongyan and former transportation department head Li Mengyan also had problems. Lai Qingde's "backyard fire" is a warning to Lai Qingde not to confiscate the primary election. Those who want to run will never sit and wait for death.

Although there are still more than two years to go until the 2026 "nine-in-one" election, the Democratic Progressive Party has already begun to deploy specific candidates in multiple counties and cities, among which the competition in Tainan City, Kaohsiung City, and New Taipei City is more obvious.

Tainan City is the first city in Taiwan to start the 2026 mayoral election. It is roughly divided into two major camps, one led by DPP legislator Chen Ting-fei and the other led by DPP legislator Lin Junxian. This camp has a close relationship with Lai Ching-te and is also known as the "Lai faction." In addition to the designated mayoral candidate Lin Junxian, Tainan legislators Guo Guowen and Lin Yi-jin are also the main core members. As three people from the "Lai faction" got into trouble within a week, there were constant doubts about the infighting, and even pointed out that Chen Ting-fei was the one who took action. When Chen Ting-fei was questioned, she responded, "I'm not that powerful." Legislator Wang Shijian even endorsed her, saying that Chen Ting-fei was an upright person. Lin Junxian also said, "It's nonsense to say that there are factional struggles in the DPP."

According to people from the green camp, the "successor iron triangle" of the DPP's "New Tide" in Tainan is Lin Junxian, Lin Yijin, and Guo Guowen. Lin Junxian has been internally selected to run for mayor of Tainan and is placed in the position of coach. Guo Guowen has been elected as the new chairman of the DPP Tainan City Party Committee. In the future, he will be responsible for cooperating in mobilizing the grassroots of the green camp and using his own years of experience in running the original Tainan County to make up for the votes that Lin Junxian lacks the most. Lin Yijin was arranged to directly attack the DPP Central Standing Committee, and through his party position, he will stabilize the nomination rules at that time so that there will not be an unfavorable situation. Although he was unexpectedly defeated, he still retains the qualification of the Central Executive Committee. However, after Lin Yijin's judicial situation, there is a possibility that the "successor iron triangle" will be missing a corner in the future. Whether the internal balance will change in a linked manner, or even whether it will affect the layout of the "New Tide" in the Tainan mayoral election, is the next indicator to observe.

The DPP's Kaohsiung mayoral primary is also very competitive, with at least five candidates having expressed their intention to run. In addition to Hsu Ming-chun, the former head of Taiwan's labor department, who recently announced his candidacy, DPP legislators Chiu Yi-ying, Lin Dai-hua, Hsu Chih-chieh, and Lai Rui-long have also expressed their intention to run. Rumors about the DPP's internal polls are flying around, and even Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chi-mai supports holding the primary early, and the party's internal fighting is imminent.

Besides Hsu Ming-chun, who is a direct descendant of Chen Chu, the head of Taiwan's supervisory agency, the other four green camp legislators have all tried to "play the Mai card" and try to establish a relationship with Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chi-mai. Hsu Chi-jie said that he and Chen Chi-mai were classmates at Hsiung High School; Lai Rui-long said that he and Chen Chi-mai had a lot of cooperation in the past at the "Internal Affairs Committee", Taiwan's public opinion agency, and that "Chen Chi-mai would say outside that I am his junior"; Lin Dai-hua said that Chen Chi-mai will always be the "captain of the Kaohsiung team"; Chiu I-ying has a deep friendship with Chen Chi-mai, and Chen Chi-mai once praised Chiu I-ying for being the first to arrive at the scene of a disaster and being very familiar with Kaohsiung.

The parties are competing against each other. Compared with the 2018 DPP primary election, which had four candidates (Chen Chi-mai, Guan Bi-ling, Zhao Tianlin, and Lin Dai-hua) participating in the Kaohsiung mayoral election, this time there are as many as five candidates, and other candidates such as Pan Meng-an, secretary-general of the Taiwan Regional Leader's Office, are also on the rumored list. The fierce competition within the DPP has caused concern among the grassroots, and many have suggested holding the primary election earlier.

As for New Taipei City, originally in June, a data leaked on the island showed that only Zheng Wencan, the former chairman of the Straits Exchange Foundation of Taiwan, could defeat all the imaginary enemies of the Blue Camp. But after Zheng Wencan was detained for the case, Su Chiao-hui, a DPP legislator who had been "skiing on the water" for a while, did not hide it anymore, saying that if the DPP intended to nominate her to run for mayor, she would definitely "take the responsibility". Another popular candidate is Lin Youchang, the secretary-general of the DPP. When Lin was interviewed, he said that it was too far away from the election.

At this point, Lai Qingde asked DPP members not to talk about the county and city mayoral elections. Those who are interested in the "Bai Li Hou" election, if they are not Lai Qingde's preferred candidates, will naturally think "You can decide who will be selected, of course there is no need to rush", and it is difficult not to feel a sense of relative deprivation. So Lai Qingde's call will probably be unpleasant to the DPP members who are "non-Lai faction" or "non-New Tide faction". Lai Qingde stands on the moral high ground, but in fact, the role of controlling all political interest distribution may be his biggest problem in the future leadership of the DPP.