Things are not going too well for Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential candidate and New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜). Amid grumblings over the party’s shoddy treatment of Hon Hai Precision Industry Co founder Terry Gou (郭台銘), who also sought the KMT nomination, Hou sought out former National Taiwan University (NTU) president Kuan Chung-ming (管中閔), but Kuan said he had no interest in politics, ending speculation of a Hou-Kuan ticket.
Hou then turned to Ko Chih-en (柯志恩), who heads the National Policy Foundation, a KMT think tank. Ko turned down the offer. Former legislative speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) declined to act as Hou’s campaign director.
The lukewarm support from fellow KMT members has dealt a blow to Hou’s support ratings. He trails Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman and presidential candidate Ko Wen-je (柯文哲).
However, Hou has done nothing to appeal to young voters, nor did he participate in a sedan chair procession at a religious festival in Kinmen County along with Ko, Gou or the Democratic Progressive Party’s presidential candidate William Lai (賴清德) a few weeks ago. Even KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) appears to have lost interest.
Ko seems to enjoy “flirting” with Gou on the sidelines. Before Hou’s enlistment, Gou and Ko met in private. On the day of the Kinmen procession, Gou briefly met with Lai, while Ko did not. Later that day, Gou and Ko were photographed seated side-by-side looking at the night sky, but both prevaricated when asked what they talked about.
Gou raised a few eyebrows when he promised to fund an army of 80,000 robots to defend Taiwan from a Chinese invasion, but was indifferent to Nvidia Corp cofounder and CEO Jensen Huang’s (黃仁勳) visit to Taiwan, where Huang said that artificial intelligence’s (AI) “iPhone moment” has arrived.
Since Gou says he is concerned with young people and start-up activities, should he not at least show some interest in AI?
Bonnie Glaser, a US expert on China affairs, told a Brookings Institution forum in Washington that compared with Hou, Ko had a track record of handling relations with China, which meant that Beijing would be “more comfortable” supporting him.
However, Ko twisted Glaser’s words, saying that she means “he is the one most capable of communicating with China and the US,” which Glaser pushed back by calling Ko “dishonest.”
Regardless of the change in polls or support ratings, Ko is a force to be reckoned with in this campaign.
So far, Ko’s role has been to lambast the DPP and KMT for their unsatisfactory performance or scandals. He has no vision of his own, and is best known for repeating Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) “the two sides of the Taiwan Strait are one family” idea. Given this, it is safe to assume that he does not object to unification. He should be able to garner support from the “deep-blue” voters, China supporters and perhaps Gou’s backers. He could also appeal to the pan-green camp, as he used to be the leader of former president Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) personal medical team. Due to this history, Ko once called himself “black green” and has won favor with a percentage of Chen’s fans.
On the other hand, Gou has said that he would do his best to promote solidarity in the KMT, so how exactly does he plan to collaborate with Ko?
Perhaps he will give spiritual and financial support, or join Ko on his ticket, although it is difficult to say who will be on top. As the TPP chairman, Ko is used to giving orders; as the head of a huge enterprise, Gou is no stranger to being head honcho. As Ko has the considerable advantage of having a party behind him, it might all boil down to how much Gou desires the presidency.
Paul Lin is a political commentator.
Concerns that the US might abandon Taiwan are often overstated. While US President Donald Trump’s handling of Ukraine raised unease in Taiwan, it is crucial to recognize that Taiwan is not Ukraine. Under Trump, the US views Ukraine largely as a European problem, whereas the Indo-Pacific region remains its primary geopolitical focus. Taipei holds immense strategic value for Washington and is unlikely to be treated as a bargaining chip in US-China relations. Trump’s vision of “making America great again” would be directly undermined by any move to abandon Taiwan. Despite the rhetoric of “America First,” the Trump administration understands the necessity of
US President Donald Trump’s challenge to domestic American economic-political priorities, and abroad to the global balance of power, are not a threat to the security of Taiwan. Trump’s success can go far to contain the real threat — the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) surge to hegemony — while offering expanded defensive opportunities for Taiwan. In a stunning affirmation of the CCP policy of “forceful reunification,” an obscene euphemism for the invasion of Taiwan and the destruction of its democracy, on March 13, 2024, the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) used Chinese social media platforms to show the first-time linkage of three new
If you had a vision of the future where China did not dominate the global car industry, you can kiss those dreams goodbye. That is because US President Donald Trump’s promised 25 percent tariff on auto imports takes an ax to the only bits of the emerging electric vehicle (EV) supply chain that are not already dominated by Beijing. The biggest losers when the levies take effect this week would be Japan and South Korea. They account for one-third of the cars imported into the US, and as much as two-thirds of those imported from outside North America. (Mexico and Canada, while
I have heard people equate the government’s stance on resisting forced unification with China or the conditional reinstatement of the military court system with the rise of the Nazis before World War II. The comparison is absurd. There is no meaningful parallel between the government and Nazi Germany, nor does such a mindset exist within the general public in Taiwan. It is important to remember that the German public bore some responsibility for the horrors of the Holocaust. Post-World War II Germany’s transitional justice efforts were rooted in a national reckoning and introspection. Many Jews were sent to concentration camps not
RSS