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Monday, 9 November 2026In-depth reporting

Lead / Taiwan · Politics & policy · Taipei mayoral debate 2026

Taipei’s mayoral debate, sentence by sentence: half of it was attack and defence; Chiang talked about what he has done, Shen about what he would do

We split the transcript of Taipei’s 31 October mayoral debate into 711 sentences and coded each one: 50.6% of what Puma Shen said and 46.4% of what Chiang Wan-an said was attacking the other or rebutting. Concrete policy made up 17.8% of Shen’s words; Chiang’s record in office made up 22.4% of his. Checked against public records, each man was half right about the Gongguan roundabout. Chiang described the Circular metro line, sports centres and the seniors’ card as further along than the city’s own figures show; Shen’s free drop-in childcare pledge faces a staffing gap of about 300,000 hours a week, and we found no source for his “7% attendance” figure.

By Art · Published 31 Oct 2026 ·

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50.6%of Puma Shen’s words spent attacking or rebutting (Chiang Wan-an: 46.4%)
17.8%of Shen’s words on concrete future policy (Chiang: 7.7%)
22.4%of Chiang’s words on his record in office (Shen: 4.9%)
32.55%progress on the northern and southern Circular line sections (Chiang: “completion is in sight”)
300,000 hoursweekly staffing gap the city estimates for four free hours of drop-in childcare a week

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Series

Series · 3 parts

A year on Ukrainian forums

A year of Ukrainian forum talk about wartime life, cultural identity and politics, in three parts.

  1. Part 1 · Daily lifeFrom buying a deferment to the blackout bill: how Ukrainians online have argued over the cost of staying
  2. Part 2 · CultureFrom switching off Russian to a helmet at the Olympics: how Ukrainians online have argued over what counts as "ours"
  3. Part 3 · PoliticsWhat do I owe the state? How Ukrainians online have argued over elections, peace talks and allies

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20 Minutes2027 French presidential electionAgoratlasAndriy YermakAstroturfingAttacBanlieueBBC VerifyBFMTVBloquons tout ("Block everything")
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