TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Chu I-ming (朱翊銘) is running for Taiwan’s legislature in Taipei’s Daan District with a wide-ranging policy platform ranging from legalizing all drugs and sex work to eradicating capitalism.
Chu, a candidate for the Taiwan Reform Party, also has policies protecting the interests of transgender people, improving labor rights and unionization rates, targeting education equality, introducing a universal basic income (UBI), and banning taro in hot pot. Chu admits the last policy was designed to draw attention, and told Taiwan News the approach is working.
“Most Taiwanese would think that Taro in hot pot is disgusting,” he said, adding that after announcing this policy, many more people were drawn to his platform.
Before mounting his campaign, the legislative candidate worked with other leftist political groups in Taiwan, and during the recent “Autumn Fight (秋斗)” protest was invited to speak about improving sex workers’ rights. The Autumn Fight is an annual protest organized by labor groups including the Left Party, who Chu said he previously worked with, starting in 2018.
In 2020, Chu began to work with the Taiwan Reform Party in his hometown of Taichung. He is standing as a candidate in Daan for the first time in the 2024 election, after moving to the suburb for work.
Chu I-ming’s policy handout, which details equalizing private and public university fees, removing two stage turns for scooters, allowing women to enter organized crime and others. (Central Election Commission image)
Chu said his three most important policies are legalizing sex work and marijuana, and decriminalizing all other drugs. Sex work is illegal in Taiwan, and while technically sex work zones are allowed, none have been created.
Working in the sex industry himself motivated Chu to campaign for sex workers’ rights and interests, and workplace safety. “If it remains illegal, there is no way to protect sex workers,” he said.
As for legalizing drugs, Chu noted that in places like Australia, psychedelic drugs have been approved for treatments. However, Chu was also quick to clarify that his stance is motivated by legalizing recreational use, as well as for healthcare.
“I think recreational use should be legal because everyone should have their own choice and freedom,” he said. “I also think that if it’s legal, you can better prevent people from overdosing, by better controlling what people take.”
Aside from Chu, the Taiwan Green Party is also campaigning on marijuana legalization. Asked if he would consider joining a group like the Green Party in the future, Chu said he would be more likely to choose a mainstream party, as the chances of being elected would be higher.
Chu hands out taro bread while campaigning in Taipei’s Wanhua on Wednesday. (Facebook, Chu I-ming photo)
Despite his best efforts (and anti-taro stance), Chu said that during this election, his goal is not to be elected to office. Instead, he is running to bring attention to issues he thinks are important, which are for the most part, not discussed in Taiwan politics.
“For me, I would not say that I am trying to enter the system,” Chu said. “I don’t feel that I have to be elected. If I was elected, I likely would not be able to promote these topics.”
When asked about his competition in the legislative race, Chu showed a large bruise on his knee. Chu sustained the bruise when thrown to the ground by police protecting the KMT’s vice presidential candidate Jaw Shaw-kang and Daan legislative candidate Lo Chih-chiang (羅智強) on Monday.
Chu approached Lo while the pair were campaigning at a night market, and was arrested as he called on Lo to debate him (Lo refused). Chu said he was not charged during the incident, but even so thought the police overreacted.
“We are both legislative candidates, why did they arrest me?” he asked.
A candidate running for the Daan seat that Chu likely has more in common with is Miao Po-ya (苗博雅), who the Democratic Progressive Party has tacitly supported by not running a candidate against her. Chu said Miao does not have a chance of being elected either, describing Daan as a KMT stronghold.
The DPP’s Freddy Lim and Wu Pei-yi join Miao Po-ya on the campaign trail in Taipei on Thursday. (CNA photo)
When asked if the pair could work together, Chu reiterated that he was not campaigning to be elected but to promote his ideas, which he said the DPP and Miao’s campaign would not support. “Votes would be lost, so they wouldn’t support the ideas I am promoting.
“So, I will promote the ideas everyone else won’t touch,” he said.
For a democratic society, Chu said the power of the left in Taiwan is relatively weak. Part of the reason for this, he says, is the history of anti-communist sentiment in Taiwan.
“The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is associated with Marxism, and many people think communism and Marxism are the same as the CCP, but they aren’t,” he said. “Regular people will think they are the same, or that the (ideas) come from China, but actually, the ideas are separate.”
