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TAIWAN-POLITICS
Populist pro-China mayor to face Tsai in Taiwan presidential clash
TAIPEI, July 15, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – A populist mayor who favours closer ties
with Beijing was announced as the presidential candidate for Taiwan’s
opposition on Monday as it looks to unseat President Tsai Ing-wen in upcoming
elections.
Han Kuo-yu won the primary for the opposition Kuomintang party,
comfortably seeing off a challenge from Taiwan’s richest man, billionaire
Foxconn founder Terry Gou.
His victory sets up an unpredictable clash as Taiwan goes to the polls in
January in a contest that will be dominated by relations with China.
Han, 62, has enjoyed a stunning rise in the last two years, journeying
from relative obscurity to his party’s presidential candidate in a phenomenon
that has been dubbed the “Han tide”.
Some have likened him to US President Donald Trump and other populist
leaders who hail from outside establishment circles and command a fervent
voter base buoyed by lofty promises of resurrecting their fortunes.
Han won 45 percent of votes cast in the KMT’s primary — which polls
members of the public by telephone — compared with Gou’s 28 percent, a
setback for a man who made his fortune assembling iPhones and other key
electronic devices in Chinese mainland factories. Han was a relative unknown
until he seized the Kaohsiung mayoralty in local elections last year in a
shock win in the southern city that has long been a heartland for Tsai’s
ruling Democratic Progressive Party.
He has been able to muster huge, enthusiastic crowds during campaigning,
where he has vowed to restore warm ties with Beijing and kickstart the
economy.
“Taiwanese people have been living difficult lives in the past three
years,” he told reporters after the result was announced as he urged his
party to unite.
Gou has previously hinted he might run as an independent if he lost, a
move that could split the KMT vote.
– An ‘earthen steamed bun’ –
Relations with Beijing have soured since Tsai came to power in 2016
because her party refuses to recognise the idea that Taiwan is part of “one
China”.
Since her election Beijing has cut official communications, ramped up
military exercises, poached diplomatic allies and ratcheted up economic
pressure on the island.
Taiwan has been a de facto sovereign nation since the end of a civil war
in 1949 but China still views it as its territory and has vowed to seize it,
by force if necessary.
Tsai has described the 2020 presidential election as a “fight for freedom
and democracy”, setting herself up as someone who can defend Taiwan from an
increasingly assertive Beijing.
Supporters see Han as a plain-talking maverick who has shaken up the staid
politics of the KMT — but detractors are unnerved by his efforts promoting
warmer China ties.
He has shown a knack for using the criticism to his advantage.
When a spokesman for Tsai dismissed Han as something of a country bumpkin
by calling him an “earthen steamed bun” he responded by presiding over a
steamed bun cooking competition.
He has also embraced nicknames like “bald guy” and “vegetable man”, the
latter a reference to a previous job as general manager of the Taipei
Agricultural Products Marketing Corporation.
“He’s a charismatic campaigner and he drummed up lots of enthusiasm for
his mayoral bid,” Shelley Rigger, an expert on Taiwan at Davidson College in
North Carolina, told AFP.
“He’s struggled a bit with substance, especially on cross-Strait
relations, where his position has bounced around,” she added, referring to
ties with Beijing.
While many older people favour warmer relationship with the mainland, many
younger Taiwanese are now adopting an increasingly wary view towards China
and a staunchly independent identity.
A bellicose New Year speech by Chinese president Xi Jinping and the recent
political chaos in Hong Kong has further inflamed fears in Taiwan over what
the future holds if Beijing has its way, with Tsai seeing her previously
moribund poll ratings rise.
BSS/AFP/FI/ 1155 hrs