2025 Kuomintang chairmanship election

By January 2025, Sun Chien-ping [zh], a member of the Kuomintang's Central Standing Committee and convenor of the White Civil Justice League, which counterprotested the Sunflower Student Movement, had declared his candidacy.^[1][2] Cho Po-yuan announced his candidacy on 16 April 2025.^[3] Chang Ya-chung entered the election on 22 May 2025.^[4] After both rounds of the 2025 Taiwanese recall votes passed without any Kuomintang member of the Legislative Yuan losing their seat, incumbent party leader Eric Chu confirmed that he would not seek reelection and called for Taichung mayor Lu Shiow-yen to run.^[5][6] In response, Lu stated she had no plans to contest the party leadership. Instead, she was focused on mayoral responsibilities, particularly reducing the effect of American tariffs on businesses in Taichung.^[7] Lo Chih-chiang announced his candidacy for the party leadership on 25 August 2025.^[8] Lo stated that, if he were elected chairman, he would support Lu's candidacy in the 2028 presidential election, then step down as chair if she were confirmed as the KMT nominee within three months of the 2026 local elections.^[9] Lo confirmed on 7 September that he had received permission to run in the election, although he had not yet served on the Kuomintang's Central Committee or the Central Advisory Committee, stating that outgoing chair Chu would appoint him to a position on the Central Advisory Committee.^[10] On 9 September, Hau Lung-pin stated that either he or Jaw Shaw-kong would contest the leadership election.^[11]

The chairmanship election was scheduled for 18 October 2025,^[12] with candidate registration originally planned on 4 and 5 September,^[13] then later expanded to 1 through 5 September.^[6] On 27 August, the Central Standing Committee approved Cheng Cheng-chien's resolution to postpone candidate registration to 15 through 19 September.^[14]

On 18 September 2025, Lo Chih-chiang, Cheng Li-wun, and Cho Po-yuan completed the registration of their candidacies, with Lo and Cheng paying an administrative fee of NT$3 million, alongside a deposit of NT$10 million. Hau Lung-pin acquired registration forms on the same day.^[15][16] Hau, Chang Ya-chung, and former National Assembly member Tsai Chih-hung [zh] formally registered their candidacies on 19 September.^[17][18]

The first party leadership debate was hosted by Chung T'ien Television (CTi) on 20 September 2025. Hau Lung-pin was invited, but could not attend. Cho Po-yuan protested as the debate was being held, because he had not been invited. Chang Ya-chung, Cheng Li-wun, and Lo Chih-chiang shared their views on Cross-strait relations. Both Cheng and Lo backed the 1992 Consensus, with Cheng promising to "crush" any support of the Taiwan independence movement and uphold the Constitution of the Republic of China. Lo stated, "I am Taiwanese and Chinese. My China is the Republic of China." Chang pledged to reinstate the Guidelines for National Unification if he were elected Kuomintang chair.^[19] At the second chairmanship debate, hosted by CTi on 27 September, five of six candidates discussed the party's candidate selection process for the 2028 presidential election.^[20] Cho Po-yuan was again absent and protested his lack of invitation.^[21] The United Daily News and TVBS News co-hosted the third party leadership debate on 2 October. All six candidates took part and again discussed cross-strait relations.^[22][23] On 11 October, CTi hosted a fourth party leadership debate, for which Cho was not present. Tsai asked the other party leadership candidates if they were willing to meet Chinese Communist Party officials after their election, and all four expressed their openness to the idea.^[24]

During the fourth debate, Hau also commented on the use of artificial intelligence in the election. Two days previously, he had claimed on Facebook that "foreign forces" and "fellow party members" had been disseminating AI-generated misinformation about him online.^[25][26] Although Hau did not name specific countries, Jaw Shaw-kong identified China as the source of the interference in comments supportive of Hau.^[25][26][27] Prior to the fourth debate and revelation of AI-related concerns, Jamestown Foundation president Peter Mattis wrote about the Kuomintang's preference for closer ties with China.^[28] After he had brought up the AI-related issues, Hau himself continued to support a cross-strait policy calling on China to apply "no force as long as Taiwan does not declare independence".^[29][30] The deputy director of Tunghai University's Center for Mainland China and Regional Development Research, Hung Pu-chao, observed that the situation marked an expansion of Chinese efforts to influence Taiwanese political systems.^[31] On 15 October, the National Security Bureau confirmed that approximately 1,000 video clips about the Kuomintang leadership election were posted to Douyin, and 200 videos about the election were present on YouTube, with roughly a dozen of the actively tracked YouTube accounts not Taiwanese in origin. Citing the imminence of the election date, Director-General Tsai Ming-yen declined to confirm that the posts were specifically from China or discuss which candidate the majority of videos supported.^[32][33]