Taitung County Magistrate Rao Ching-ling has been in power for eight years. The party's designated successor, Wu Hsiu-hua, is also a female politician. She does not like to be aggressive or sharply critical. If one sentence could describe Wu Hsiu-hua in this interview, it would be: "Rather than talking about politics, she is more like talking about life."
When asked about Taitung's recent development, Wu first affirmed the county government's achievements in tourism activities, public construction, and financial management, then approached it from the perspective of "how can we do better in the future," rather than the typical political criticism. This way of answering reduced the hostility and added pragmatism.
Among all issues, the keyword she mentions most often is not tourism or transportation, but "population" and "whether young people can stay." For her, Taitung's population falling below 210,000 is not just a statistic but a sense of crisis. If people cannot be retained, no amount of construction will support long-term development. When talking about indigenous policies, her response speed increased and the content became more specific. It was clear that this was not just an expression of policy ideas but a topic she has truly followed for a long time.
Interestingly, when the political topic is set aside, she appears in a different light. When mentioning first love, family, and ways to relieve stress, she smiled more, generously admitting that her husband is her first love, and laughingly said that at home it's usually "the wife calls the shots." This confidence and frankness forms an interesting contrast with her rational discussion of policy. Throughout the interview, she showed neither excessive passion nor a deliberately strong image. More often, she seemed like a long-time local representative, talking about her observations and concerns for Taitung at her own pace.
Precisely because of this, when she kept mentioning youth, population, and life, it revealed a local politician's anxiety about the future of her hometown. And this anxiety may be her most genuine side.
