Among Taiwan’s new political stars, we are currently conducting tracking studies on the following: 1. Lai Ching-te of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP); 2. Hou You-Yi of the Kuomintang (KMT); 3. Ko Wen-je of the Tawian People’s Party (TPP); 4. Cheng Wen-tsan of the DPP; 5. Eric Chu of the KMT. In Taiwan itself, Hou is currently the focus of the blue-camp, while the focus of the green-camp is Lai.

Taiwan’s politicians who received more media coverage in Mainland China, such as Hung Hsiu-chu, James Soong, Lien Chan, etc., are the older generation and they are almost invisible figures in Taiwan. The usual role and value that they have are mostly linking the Mainland to Taiwan. In the DPP meanwhile, a new generation has risen. Su Tseng-chang, Tsai Ing-wen, Annette Lu, and Chen Shui-bian will all become figures of the past. However, compared with the blue-camp, the older generation of the green-camp is more active than the blue-camp because they are in power, and they have a greater impact on the new generation.

Among the important figures in green-camp’s new generation, the most prominent ones are Lai and Cheng, especially the latter.

Cheng belongs to the generation grew up in Taoyuan and later becomes its mayor. He was a student activist, and being a typical new generation of political figure, he is extremely proficient in the use of modern information tools. As we have previously pointed out, using Twitter and other tools will be a requirement for political figures.

Cheng is no stranger to economic development. In fact, he is rather good at it. During his tenure as the mayor of Taoyuan, the municipality's economy developed rapidly and the appearance of the city has changed a lot. When observing economic policies, large-scale urban projects would often be the focus. If there are multiple projects with good evaluations, then the personality behind it would be an adept in economic issues, and Cheng definitely falls into this category. He has made great achievements in Taoyuan's transportation, communication network, housing, and education, and attracted quite some investments with his pragmatic attitude.

Cheng is also said to have the ability of remembering around 15,000 people and their names easily. In terms of academic qualifications, he received his Master’s Degree from National Taiwan University (NTU), Taiwan’s most competitive university.

All in all, our current observation shows that Cheng appears to be a pragmatist within the DPP.