Chen Chi-mai’s Daughter Offers a Textbook Example of Voluntary Conflict Avoidance

Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chi-mai’s daughter has drawn online praise for keeping her father’s identity hidden while attending school and working on a political campaign.

“

This is the reason for voluntarily avoiding conflicts of interest.

A post on Threads said she left the father’s field blank when she enrolled at Kaohsiung Municipal Kaohsiung Girls’ Senior High School. The post claimed even the school principal did not learn she was Chen’s daughter until graduation. The writer joked that Chen’s cat was better known than his daughter and asked whether the principal might have treated her differently if her identity had been known.

The post attracted more than one million views. Han Jing, a former aide to legislator Cheng Yun-peng, added that Chen’s daughter worked and learned with Cheng’s campaign team during his 2022 run for mayor of Taoyuan. According to Han, only she and the campaign director knew the young woman’s identity. Even the person who interviewed her and Cheng himself did not know.

“

Everyone just thought, ‘Why is this new girl not shy at all around the Kaohsiung mayor?’

Han said Chen cooperated in keeping the relationship hidden when he joined a campaign motorcade. Team members simply saw a young newcomer who was unusually comfortable handing a microphone to the Kaohsiung mayor. She performed the same demanding work as everyone else, including site inspections and event planning, with no special treatment. The team learned her identity only after the election, prompting shocked reactions. Another campaign worker said the revelation left him speechless. The discussion emerged amid public criticism of Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an over claims involving privilege and insufficient conflict-of-interest avoidance connected to his eldest son’s education and extracurricular activities.

“

Because you have met her before, you just forgot, big brother.