Taiwan's opposition Taiwan People's Party (TPP) on November 2 demanded that the family of Su Chiao-hui, the ruling party's candidate for mayor of New Taipei, explain how public money flowed into a tech startup linked to her younger sister, seizing on a BBC report that singled out the case as Su's biggest liability ahead of the 2026 Taiwan local elections.
"Is the nation's money the Su family's money?" the TPP asked in a Facebook post, the latest in a months-long campaign by the party over government funding received by the company while the candidate's father, Su Tseng-chang, served as Taiwan's premier from 2019 to 2023. Voters across Taiwan will elect mayors, county chiefs, and councilors on November 28.
New Taipei, which wraps around the capital Taipei, is Taiwan's most populous city. It has been governed by the opposition Kuomintang (KMT) since it became a special municipality in 2010, and its incumbent mayor, Hou Yu-ih, is barred by term limits from running again. Su, a three-term legislator from the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), faces Lee Shu-chuan, a former deputy mayor running as the joint candidate of the KMT and the TPP.
Opposition Lays Out Three Questions On State Money
The TPP said it has held a series of press conferences on the case since May and has filed a criminal complaint with prosecutors. It accused Su of offering only stock replies when pressed: that her sister had succeeded on her own professional merits, that the story was an old case being recycled, and that it was election manipulation.
The party put three questions to the Su family. "When the poorly performing company wanted to raise capital, why did the National Development Fund and Taiwan Business Bank use taxpayers' money to buy shares? Why did taxpayers pay NT$13 a share while Su Chiao-chun paid NT$0.5 a share? Are the huge losses borne by the public while the profits go into the Su family's pocket?"
The National Development Fund is a Cabinet-run investment fund, and Taiwan Business Bank is a state-controlled lender. The TPP describes Su Chiao-chun as the person in charge of the startup and says the arrangement raises serious questions under Taiwan's Act on Recusal of Public Servants Due to Conflicts of Interest.
"In the face of public questions, the green camp's consistent playbook is to shift the blame, then say others are smearing them, and finally play innocent," the TPP said, using the color associated with the DPP. It also accused the ruling party of pouring resources into packaging Su together with its Taipei mayoral candidate, Puma Shen, under a joint campaign brand, while failing to explain its own conflict of interest questions.
"The people do not need to be placated with spin, still less a mayor who only looks out for her family and cannot protect the public interest," the party said, calling on Su to "stand up and explain it clearly to the whole nation."
KMT And Lee Join The Attack
The TPP's allies in the KMT used the BBC report the same way. Chen Yi-hsin, director of the KMT's culture and communications committee, said on November 2 that even international media had taken notice while Su was still "papering over" the issue. The National Development Fund invested close to NT$20 million (about US$620,000) in the company in 2022, when Su Tseng-chang was premier, Chen said, adding that his daughter serves as one of its directors. "The National Development Fund is the people's money, not the Su family's money," he said, urging the "Su father and daughter" to "produce evidence and explain the truth."
Lee, the KMT candidate, said on November 1 that "foreign media's observations are the public's questions." A day later he said Su's sister had obtained more than NT$40 million in government subsidies and investment without recusal or disclosure of the family tie. "Was the conflict of interest law violated in the process? This must be made clear," Lee said.
Su Campaign Says Rivals Are Twisting The BBC Report
Su's campaign rejected the accusations on November 2. A campaign spokesperson said the relevant government ministries had "already clearly explained that Su Chiao-chun is not the person in charge of the company, nor a member of the project's staff, and that all forms required by law were filed in accordance with the relevant rules."
The spokesperson said the BBC article had presented the TPP's allegations alongside the views of all sides, but that the KMT and the TPP had recast it as a one-sided accusation by a BBC reporter in an attempt to "distort the facts." The campaign also pointed out that the same BBC article reported on allegations involving Lee's younger brother, and asked whether that meant the BBC had branded the Lee family as local bullies.
Government agencies have previously defended the funding. Taiwan's economic ministry said in May that the relevant procedures had been followed, and National Development Council Minister Yeh Chun-hsien has said the fund's investment decisions are made by committees and do not require recusal, Taiwan News reported in July. A DPP lawmaker has also argued that the fund made an equity investment rather than handing out a subsidy.
BBC Says The Opposition Alliance Is Losing Its Edge
A BBC Chinese language report on the race, republished by Storm Media on November 1, described the funding controversy as the most serious issue hanging over Su and noted the TPP's complaint to the Taipei District Prosecutors Office. It also reported Su's response that the accusation was a political smear and that her sister had succeeded through her own expertise.
The report described Lee, 68, as a first-time candidate and engineering technocrat who served as deputy mayor of several cities, and who once told CommonWealth Magazine in 2022 that he had no interest in running for office. It said his chances depend heavily on whether Hou's popularity carries over: a CommonWealth survey this year ranked Hou first in satisfaction among the mayors of Taiwan's six special municipalities.
The BBC also suggested the KMT and TPP alliance is delivering diminishing returns. TPP Chairman Huang Kuo-chang initially said he would run in New Taipei before stepping aside for Lee after both parties released polls. The broadcaster cited a civic group report showing combined KMT and TPP support led the DPP by about 15 points in December 2025, a margin that has since narrowed to a roughly even race.
Polls Split On Taiwan's Most Populous City
Recent surveys of the New Taipei mayoral race, a key battleground of the 2026 Taiwan local elections, point in different directions.
A telephone poll commissioned by the Xinmin Cross-Strait Research Association, designed by pollster Dai Li-an and released on October 13, gave Su 43.1% and Lee 30.0%, a 13.1-point lead that the BBC cited in its report. Su had held only a narrow lead, 35.2% to 34.7%, in the group's previous survey. The latest poll interviewed 1,073 adults by landline and mobile phone from October 6 to 8, with a margin of error of plus or minus 3.0 percentage points.
Other surveys show a much tighter contest. A Pearson Data poll released on October 15, conducted from September 28 to October 3 among 1,066 respondents, had Lee at 45.74% and Su at 45.18%, a statistical tie within its margin of error of plus or minus 3.0 points.
| Poll (release date) | Su Chiao-hui (DPP) | Lee Shu-chuan (KMT) |
| Pearson Data (Oct. 15) | 45.18% | 45.74% |
| Xinmin Cross-Strait Research Association, telephone (Oct. 13) | 43.1% | 30.0% |
| Z Media (late September) | 38.2% | 37.1% |
| TVBS for the KMT New Taipei City Council caucus, telephone (Sept. 2) | 33.1% | 39.8% |
The polls differ in sponsorship and method. Whether the opposition's renewed focus on the Su family's finances can move voters in the final four weeks will help decide whether the KMT keeps its hold on Taiwan's largest city in the 2026 Taiwan local elections.