The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is to nominate Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) as its candidate for next year’s presidential election after he beat Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) founder Terry Gou (郭台銘) by 17 percentage points in the primary.
Han received an aggregated support rate of 44.805 percent in the polling, conducted from July 8 to Sunday, KMT Vice Chairman Tseng Yung-chuan (曾永權) said yesterday at KMT headquarters in Taipei.
Gou received an aggregated 27.73 percent support, while former New Taipei City mayor Eric Chu’s (朱立倫) total was 17.9 percent, former Taipei County commissioner Chou Hsi-wei (周錫瑋) got 6.02 percent and Sun Yat-sen School president Chang Ya-chung (張亞中) 3.544 percent, Tseng said.
Photo: Chiang Ying-ying, AP
Poll data released by the KMT showed that Han’s support ratings were the highest when matched with fellow KMT members and with outside competitors.
When respondents were asked who of the five candidates they would vote for for president, more than 51 percent chose Han, while about 34 percent chose Gou and 13 percent chose Chu, the poll found.
Asked to choose between Han, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), 47.7 percent said they would back Han, 18 percent said Ko and 15.8 percent Tsai, it found.
Photo: Chiang Ying-ying, AP
Asked to choose between Gou, Tsai and Ko, 29.2 percent said Gou, 14.6 percent said Ko and 14.1 percent said Tsai, it found.
Asked to choose between Chu, Tsai and Ko, 20.7 percent said Chu, 18.8 percent said Ko and 15.6 percent said Tsai, it showed.
The poll was conducted by five polling companies and gathered a total of 15,185 valid samples via landlines, the KMT said.
At a news conference at KMT headquarters after the results were announced, Han thanked the party, his fellow candidates and his supporters.
“At this moment I feel no joy in my heart, only great pressure, given the huge challenges ahead,” he said. “With your help, I hope to take up the responsibility and work to create a better future for Taiwan, to safeguard the Republic of China — and to carve out a brighter and more fecund path for our future generations.”
He would review the policies proposed by the other candidates and adopt viable ones, but to ensure party unity, he planned to immediately contact his rivals and arrange visits with them, he said.
While the KMT has been discussing the removal of a clause in its charter requiring a member elected president to double as the party’s chairman, Han said he would “completely respect” the Central Standing Committee’s decision.
Asked if he would step down as mayor to prepare for the presidential campaign, Han said he would do his best to run the city.
“Please rest assured that I would not dare forget my responsibilities as mayor of Kaohsiung,” he said.
Asked about rumors that the Democratic Progressive Party had urged its supporters to back Han in the KMT poll, believing he would be easier to beat, the mayor said it is normal for parties to mobilize their supporters during primary polling.
“The KMT’s presidential primaries have never been unfair,” KMT Chairman Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) said, adding that this primary was the most transparent the party has ever held.
Han is to be formally nominated at the KMT’s national convention on July 28 after the Central Standing Committee reviews his nomination tomorrow.
‘ABUSE OF POWER’: Lee Chun-yi allegedly used a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon and take his wife to restaurants, media reports said Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) resigned on Sunday night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by the media. Control Yuan Vice President Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) yesterday apologized to the public over the issue. The watchdog body would follow up on similar accusations made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and would investigate the alleged misuse of government vehicles by three other Control Yuan members: Su Li-chiung (蘇麗瓊), Lin Yu-jung (林郁容) and Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋), Lee Hung-chun said. Lee Chun-yi in a statement apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a
EUROPEAN TARGETS: The planned Munich center would support TSMC’s European customers to design high-performance, energy-efficient chips, an executive said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday said that it plans to launch a new research-and-development (R&D) center in Munich, Germany, next quarter to assist customers with chip design. TSMC Europe president Paul de Bot made the announcement during a technology symposium in Amsterdam on Tuesday, the chipmaker said. The new Munich center would be the firm’s first chip designing center in Europe, it said. The chipmaker has set up a major R&D center at its base of operations in Hsinchu and plans to create a new one in the US to provide services for major US customers,
BEIJING’S ‘PAWN’: ‘We, as Chinese, should never forget our roots, history, culture,’ Want Want Holdings general manager Tsai Wang-ting said at a summit in China The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday condemned Want Want China Times Media Group (旺旺中時媒體集團) for making comments at the Cross-Strait Chinese Culture Summit that it said have damaged Taiwan’s sovereignty, adding that it would investigate if the group had colluded with China in the matter and contravened cross-strait regulations. The council issued a statement after Want Want Holdings (旺旺集團有限公司) general manager Tsai Wang-ting (蔡旺庭), the third son of the group’s founder, Tsai Eng-meng (蔡衍明), said at the summit last week that the group originated in “Chinese Taiwan,” and has developed and prospered in “the motherland.” “We, as Chinese, should never
‘A SURVIVAL QUESTION’: US officials have been urging the opposition KMT and TPP not to block defense spending, especially the special defense budget, an official said The US plans to ramp up weapons sales to Taiwan to a level exceeding US President Donald Trump’s first term as part of an effort to deter China as it intensifies military pressure on the nation, two US officials said on condition of anonymity. If US arms sales do accelerate, it could ease worries about the extent of Trump’s commitment to Taiwan. It would also add new friction to the tense US-China relationship. The officials said they expect US approvals for weapons sales to Taiwan over the next four years to surpass those in Trump’s first term, with one of them saying