Exclusive: Chu Ting-yu Enters Hsinchu County Race to Launch Taiwan’s Fourth Land Reform in 50 Years

Hsinchu County’s mayoral race has become a three-way contest between the political camps represented by the Kuomintang and Democratic Progressive Party, and an independent candidate calling for sweeping land reform.

Chu Ting-yu, a political newcomer and owner of a telecommunications engineering small business, says he decided to run more than two years ago. He describes the campaign as a vehicle for launching Taiwan’s fourth land reform in 50 years and bringing the idea to national attention.

Chu says 35 years of watching political developments across the Taiwan Strait convinced him that China’s political system will eventually collapse in 2030. He also believes a Taiwanese leader will guide the cause of unification, a role he once thought might be filled by former President Tsai Ing-wen or President Lai Ching-te. He says those hopes turned to disappointment over domestic land policy.

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I want to launch Taiwan’s fourth land reform in 50 years.

In Chu’s view, current land policies have helped produce widening inequality, speculation by conglomerates and a high-pressure environment in which young people hesitate to marry or have children. He says the intense attention surrounding the Hsinchu County and Zhubei mayoral races gives him a chance to make land reform visible across Taiwan and perhaps emerge as the unexpected winner while the blue and green camps compete.

If elected, Chu says he would apply land readjustment acquisitions broadly to private land. Landowners would receive 40% as building land, while the remaining 60% would be retained for rental or free-use arrangements. The county government would make the land available to young people and companies returning to their hometowns to start businesses. He says the plan would spread science parks, industrial areas, housing, commercial districts and farmland across townships, curb land speculation and reduce excessive urbanization.

Chu also proposes free land for families who raise children, within a specified period, along with one free parking space. He says the measures would allow residents to work and study closer to home and avoid long commutes.

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The current land policy is the source of many social problems, including inequality, conglomerate speculation and the pressure that leaves young people afraid to marry or have children.