**Taiwanese Host Cai Kangyong Faces Backlash and Brand Cut-Off After Attending Election Event**
Renowned Taiwanese host Cai Kangyong recently made headlines for appearing at the campaign event of Shen Boyang, a Democratic Progressive Party candidate for Taipei Mayor. This move sparked controversy in mainland China, leading to a backlash and a cut-off in brand partnerships. On the 14th, the Taiwan Affairs Office of the Chinese Communist Party launched an attack on Cai Kangyong. Netizens discovered that the contact information of his agent on Xiaohongshu had been cleared, leading to speculations that he might be preparing to withdraw from the mainland market.
Cai Kangyong showed up at Shen Boyang’s campaign headquarters establishment event on October 4, though he did not publicly declare support for anyone. Despite this, he faced criticism from Chinese internet users, resulting in rapid disassociation from Chinese cooperation brands and the removal of the shows he hosted in China from airing. Despite mentioning that he would also participate in the campaign activities of Kuomintang candidate Jiang Wanan for Taipei Mayor, mainland Chinese opinions still categorized his actions as supporting “stubborn Taiwan independence elements.”
On October 14, a spokesperson for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the Chinese Communist Party stated at a regular press conference that regarding the Cai Kangyong incident, “there is no ambiguity on major issues,” emphasizing that “no one or no force can profit from the development of mainland China while being entangled with the ‘Taiwan independence’ separatist forces, playing a double game.”
Amid the escalating situation, netizens found several significant adjustments on Cai Kangyong’s Xiaohongshu personal page. Besides deleting all interview clips from the program “One Thousand and One Nights Radio,” which was previously in collaboration with Xiaohongshu, his agent’s work email (jacklin@gameness.co, happymeglai@gmail.com) and contact window for business cooperation on the main page were completely cleared.
Furthermore, the text “everything will be worth it…” that originally appeared on the main page was removed, leaving intriguing philosophical cards, such as “usually view those who don’t get along with me as no fate,” “why should one complete the road they chose themselves,” and “disappointing others doesn’t necessarily mean feeling sorry.”
Since Cai Kangyong’s account with over 36 million followers on Weibo had already been cleared of content and friends, the deletion of his agent’s contact information this time is widely interpreted by the public as a sign that he no longer intends to accept work invitations from the mainland, or bid farewell to the mainland market completely.
Cai Kangyong’s latest post was on October 6, sharing a photo of a signed text version of an artwork named “Everything is just a process” on Facebook. He wrote, “Today, I signed the new print, and there’s an exhibition to prepare for the end of the year! Sometimes I really like looking at my own prints.” This is viewed as a subtle response to the controversy, attracting a large number of likes from fans.
As the Taipei 2026 municipal elections heat up, the momentum of Democratic Progressive Party candidate Shen Boyang for Taipei Mayor has recently risen rapidly, sparking what is described as a political whirlwind called the “rising Yangtze Stream” at the grassroots level. Interestingly, a series of recent high-profile criticisms and sanctions by Chinese officials have had a significant “counteractive force” in Taiwan’s public opinion arena, objectively intensifying the “Yangtze Stream whirlwind” of Shen Boyang.