Xuejia

— Xuejia Township in Tainan received quite a lot of attention during the 2012 campaign, which might be expected to lead to a greater departure from 2008 baselines especially if candidates’ personal qualities or campaign tactics mattered in the elections. Under the early harvest provisions in ECFA, a Chinese group contracted to buy large amounts of milkfish from around 100 fish farmers in Xuejia. Xuejia, even more than the rest of the surrounding Tainan County, has historically voted overwhelmingly in favor of the green camp. For example, in 2008 Hsieh won a whopping 65.2 percent in Xuejia. Many observers saw the contract to purchase milkfish as an experiment in trying to create a pro-KMT constituency in the heart of the DPP’s strongest area by channeling the concrete benefits of economic integration directly to them. If this tactic was successful, we should expect the KMT vote to be significantly higher in Xuejia than in similar areas.