In my article “Hung Hsiu-chu Broke Through the ‘Anti-Brick’ Primary Polls With High Scores, But She Is Not Tsai Ing-wen’s Real Enemy,” I analyzed how Hung and Tsai’s real enemies currently aren’t each other—but that only applies to them personally. For their respective supporters, the war has already begun.
If you’ve been paying attention, you’ll have noticed that since the primary polls concluded yesterday, both pro-Blue and pro-Green media have been focusing entirely on Hung Hsiu-chu. In the “related articles” sections below their pieces, roughly 6 out of 10 articles are about other news regarding Hung.
The only difference lies in approach. Pro-Blue media have begun introducing Hung through her past experience—visiting schools where she once taught, reviewing her interpersonal style during her time in the legislature, and even interviewing Xu Xiaoshun, a student who was once “disciplined” by Hung.
Through the pro-Blue media, you can feel the high expectations they’re placing on Hung. And from these reports, I’ve come to better understand that today’s Hung Hsiu-chu truly has the qualifications to contend for the presidency.
For me, Hung represents a new righteous path distinct from the KMT establishment. If another poll were conducted today, but without the burden of the KMT label, I even believe Sister Zhu’s polling numbers would be even higher.
In this regard, Hung and Ko Wen-je are remarkably similar figures. If Sister Zhu could pair up with Ko P, I believe they could blow past 55% in a presidential election (though I know Ko P wouldn’t wade into those muddy waters).
In fact, even many of my friends and family who dislike the KMT were surprised by Hung’s emergence and gave quite positive evaluations and high expectations. They say they admire Sister Zhu’s personality and believe her ability to distinguish right from wrong could make her a pillar that leads Taiwan toward a more harmonious and progressive future.
As I said in that earlier article, this is an attitude that Tsai Ing-wen wants to learn but simply cannot.
Moreover, when Sister Zhu gets angry, her expression lacks the intimidating gravitas of Tsai Ing-wen. When I see Tsai’s angry face, I feel a fearful shudder inside.
On the pro-Green media side, their coverage volume on Hung actually exceeds that of the pro-Blue media. But their introduction of Hung Hsiu-chu comes through netizens, PTT users, and pro-Green public figures.
Yet these are precisely the groups that despise the KMT the most—arguably the people least familiar with anything about the KMT. So why do pro-Green media still heavily rely on these people’s narratives? Are they genuinely trying to do informational reporting?
Does this feel oddly familiar? Like you’ve seen this before?
I wrote in my article “Reporter Chung Zhikai: Getting Called Out for Talking Bra Sizes—Lee Yan-qiu Is Actually the Female Lead in Scandal-Books” that today’s reporters are no longer reporters—they’ve become more like website administrators. What they care about is page views and whether topics are sensational enough.
They don’t care how worthless, or even ugly, the words they write are—even if it means forsaking the soul of being a journalist. Let me be direct: from this moment on, pro-Green media has begun using every possible image to try to degrade Hung Hsiu-chu.
As for whether the “netizens” are real netizens or roles played by media operatives, if you’ve been watching long enough, you probably have some sense of it too. (In a more conspiratorial reading, who knows if these people behind the scenes are agents sent by Samsung from South Korea to weaken our nation’s strength—never forget the Samsung paid poster scandal!)
Some of the more sophisticated pro-Green media articles even deliberately present Hung in a plain, straightforward manner, noting that netizens have created various new images for Sister Zhu. But these reporters conveniently fail to mention that most of these netizen-created images are predominantly derogatory. This is essentially a psychological projection technique—an attempt to implant negative impressions in people’s minds through suggestive association.
Say something enough times, and people will believe it and accept it.
For example, Hung Hsiu-chu has long been known as “Little Chili Pepper,” but professional netizens have begun manufacturing a new image of her as “Nobita’s Mom,” spreading it massively across major forums. (Why don’t they say a certain someone looks like Mitsuyo-mama?)
And then Tsai Ing-wen goes on television saying she hopes the two women can launch a new kind of high-quality election?
All I see is yet another extremely vicious war, brimming with malice, that has already begun.