Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) presidential candidate, reportedly purchased a house in Taipei’s Nangang District (南港) for more than NT$70 million (US$2.3 million at the current exchange rate) in 2011, which contradicts his campaign image as an “everyman,” the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus said yesterday.
Details of the property purchase were exposed yesterday by the Chinese-language Next Magazine.
Han on Monday uploaded to Facebook a video of himself doing laundry and on Thursday last week he used a public washroom at a Taoyuan gas station, which KMT Legislator Apollo Chen (陳學聖) said demonstrated the mayor’s “charm.”
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
Han’s campaign team are attempting to portray the mayor as an everyday person, media reports have said.
Han should be more responsible in the buildup to the Jan. 11 elections and should avoid causing disruptive class conflict, DPP Legislator Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲) said at a news conference in Taipei.
Kuan was joined by DPP legislators Wang Ting-yu (王定宇), Tsai Yi-yu (蔡易餘), Huang Kuo-shu (黃國書) and Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋).
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) founder Terry Gou (郭台銘) had also commented that the atmosphere surrounding the election was “like a class struggle” when he decided not to run as an independent presidential candidate, Kuan said, adding that Han’s attempt to portray an “everyman” image has been his strategy since he ran for mayor last year, when he ate minced pork rice and drank bottled water while meeting voters.
Wang asked how Han and his wife, Lee Chia-fen (李佳芬), were able to purchase such an expensive home in 2011 when Han was unemployed if the couple were just “everyday people.”
He asked why the couple would sell the property at a loss in 2014, when Han was head of Taipei Agricultural Products Marketing Corp (台北農產公司), and then do the same when they sold a farmhouse in Yunlin County this year for less than its market value.
The property sales were “very much contrary to common sense,” he said.
The image of the couple as “everyday people” is also contradicted by their ownership of Victoria Academy bilingual school, which has very high tuition fees, Tsai said.
Han’s campaign office spokeswoman Ho Ting-huan (何庭歡) said that Han’s and Lee’s sale of the Nangang property at a loss was due to them having underestimated the financial burden of the property.
The couple were forced to sell to recuperate their losses, she said, adding that “everyday people have the right to buy and sell property.”
Additional reporting by CNA
Rainfall is expected to become more widespread and persistent across central and southern Taiwan over the next few days, with the effects of the weather patterns becoming most prominent between last night and tomorrow, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Independent meteorologist Daniel Wu (吳德榮) said that based on the latest forecast models of the combination of a low-pressure system and southwesterly winds, rainfall and flooding are expected to continue in central and southern Taiwan from today to Sunday. The CWA also warned of flash floods, thunder and lightning, and strong gusts in these areas, as well as landslides and fallen
WAITING GAME: The US has so far only offered a ‘best rate tariff,’ which officials assume is about 15 percent, the same as Japan, a person familiar with the matter said Taiwan and the US have completed “technical consultations” regarding tariffs and a finalized rate is expected to be released soon, Executive Yuan spokeswoman Michelle Lee (李慧芝) told a news conference yesterday, as a 90-day pause on US President Donald Trump’s “reciprocal” tariffs is set to expire today. The two countries have reached a “certain degree of consensus” on issues such as tariffs, nontariff trade barriers, trade facilitation, supply chain resilience and economic security, Lee said. They also discussed opportunities for cooperation, investment and procurement, she said. A joint statement is still being negotiated and would be released once the US government has made
SOUTH CHINA SEA? The Philippine president spoke of adding more classrooms and power plants, while skipping tensions with China over disputed areas Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr yesterday blasted “useless and crumbling” flood control projects in a state of the nation address that focused on domestic issues after a months-long feud with his vice president. Addressing a joint session of congress after days of rain that left at least 31 dead, Marcos repeated his recent warning that the nation faced a climate change-driven “new normal,” while pledging to investigate publicly funded projects that had failed. “Let’s not pretend, the people know that these projects can breed corruption. Kickbacks ... for the boys,” he said, citing houses that were “swept away” by the floods. “Someone has
‘CRUDE’: The potential countermeasure is in response to South Africa renaming Taiwan’s representative offices and the insistence that it move out of Pretoria Taiwan is considering banning exports of semiconductors to South Africa after the latter unilaterally downgraded and changed the names of Taiwan’s two representative offices, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said yesterday. On Monday last week, the South African Department of International Relations and Cooperation unilaterally released a statement saying that, as of April 1, the Taipei Liaison Offices in Pretoria and Cape Town had been renamed the “Taipei Commercial Office in Johannesburg” and the “Taipei Commercial Office in Cape Town.” Citing UN General Assembly Resolution 2758, it said that South Africa “recognizes the People’s Republic of China (PRC) as the sole
RSS