A Taiwanese ward chief contesting city council elections in the Kaohsiung municipality recently sparked a social media furore after putting up a billboard featuring an Indian flag and an illustration of a turbaned man, with several users alleging that the poster reflected racist attitudes, the Taipei Times reported.

The billboard had been put up by Lee Hung-yi, the ward chief of Gangming borough in Kaohsiung’s Siaogang district, the newspaper reported. Lee is contesting as an independent candidate in the city council election slated for November, although he is a member of the Taiwan People’s Party.

The billboard featured a “no” symbol over an inverted Indian flag and a brown-skinned man wearing a turban.

An individual who described themselves as an Indian living in Taiwan for many years told the Taipei Times on May 12 that the poster amounted to “blatant and direct racial discrimination”.

“I can respect that everyone has different views on migrant worker policy,” the social media user was quoted as saying. “You don’t want Taiwan to open up to migrant workers – that is your political stance. But expressing it in this way really doesn’t seem right.”

Lee told CNA that he was not opposed to migrant workers as a whole, but was specifically against migrant workers from India. He contended that a policy to open up Taiwan to Indian migrant workers lacked the necessary supporting measures and management regulations, the Focus Taiwan website reported.

On April 9, Minister of Labor Hung Sun-han said that Taiwan could bring in an initial 1,000 Indian workers to work in the fields of manufacturing, agriculture and caregiving. Taipei and New Delhi were discussing matters related to administrative procedures, document verification and health check, the Taipei Times quoted him as telling lawmakers.

The chief of the New Power Party’s Kaohsiung chapter, Wang-Yi heng said it was “utterly ignorant” to place “no symbols” over the Indian flag and the turban, which he described as a symbol of faith and dignity.

Some social media users questioned whether the billboard reflected rising racism against Indians in Taiwan.

However, Sana Hashmi, a fellow with the Taiwan Asia Exchange Foundation and a columnist, said that the poster “did not reflect the majority’s views in Taiwan”, and that Indians in the country generally do not face racism.

In April 2025, India’s Ministry of External Affairs said that there were 5,804 Indians in Taiwan, of whom 5,303 were Non-Resident Indians and 501 were Persons of Indian Origin.

Edited by Sara Varghese.