After weeks obfuscating over whether he intends to stand for president, Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) on Monday last week finally offered some clarification: He said that if he wins the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) primary and is elected president, he would work out of Kaohsiung.
What prompted him to speak up? For one, the KMT primary is approaching and time would no longer indulge his prevarication.
However, that is not the only reason.
His recent behavior in the Kaohsiung City Council might have pleased his supporters, but his performance under questioning by New Power Party Kaohsiung City Councilor Huang Jie (黃捷) and Democratic Progressive Party Kaohsiung City councilors Kang Yu-cheng (康裕成) and Lin Chih-hung (林智鴻) has been found wanting: He has shown anemic grasp of the issues, has been arrogant and gives the air of someone who has better things to do elsewhere.
These run counter to the principle of the council’s role of oversight over the city government. Han treated the councilors’ right to ask pertinent questions with contempt in the interest of fanning the flames of his fans’ support by fabricating tensions.
Han has little knowledge of the Kaohsiung City Government, nor any idea about how to answer questions. Neither the notes handed to him by his advisers and deputies, nor the oversized tablet computer sitting on his desk can divest him of the “country bumpkin” image he has been given. This has damaged his image and his apparent blase attitude to this is no more than a front.
One case in point is an opinion poll conducted two weeks ago by the news site Formosa that had Han trailing President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and former premier William Lai (賴清德) by 3 percentage points in Kaohsiung, and the level of confidence in Han among Kaohsiung residents was 44.1 percent positive, 48.2 percent negative: Overall confidence in him has fallen into negative figures.
Indeed, according to figures from the Quickseek public opinion database, Han’s online popularity has plummeted from 65 percent — prior to his April 23 five-point announcement declining to participate in the primary — to 38 percent. This trajectory south certainly suggests that Han’s negative assessment is catching up.
By category, the figure in the news media stands at minus-4.77 percent; on the Professional Technology Temple online bulletin board system, minus-10.73 percent; and in online forums, minus-11.48 percent. The total popularity positive/negative quotient is just more than 1, standing at 1.0245, meaning that it might soon go into the red.
On Monday last week, Kaohsiung County Commissioner Yang Chiu-hsing (楊秋興), who had previously supported Han’s mayoral campaign, was quite explicit in where his support lay. Not only did he accompany Han’s rival for the primary, Hon Hai Precision Industry Co chairman Terry Gou (郭台銘), to the latter’s meeting with KMT Chairman Wu Den-yih (吳敦義), he made clear that his initial support for Han was for Kaohsiung mayor, and not for president, “otherwise that would make me accomplice to a fraud.”
Han’s comments during an interview in CommonWealth Magazine, in which he said he would set up camp in Kaohsiung if he was elected president — as if this were some way to bridge the divide between Taiwan’s north and south — was his attempt to cover up his country bumpkin image with flowery words.
Han has shown his ineptitude by choosing to simply repeat his catchphrase “Kaohsiung will become rich,” as in so doing he underestimates the intelligence and discernment of Kaohsiung residents, and their ability to disassemble the “Han myth.” If he thinks diversionary tactics will turn back his fortunes, he is going to be disappointed.
Charlie Huang is a former director of the Central News Agency. He also works for the Democratic Progressive Party.
Translated by Paul Cooper
The gutting of Voice of America (VOA) and Radio Free Asia (RFA) by US President Donald Trump’s administration poses a serious threat to the global voice of freedom, particularly for those living under authoritarian regimes such as China. The US — hailed as the model of liberal democracy — has the moral responsibility to uphold the values it champions. In undermining these institutions, the US risks diminishing its “soft power,” a pivotal pillar of its global influence. VOA Tibetan and RFA Tibetan played an enormous role in promoting the strong image of the US in and outside Tibet. On VOA Tibetan,
Former minister of culture Lung Ying-tai (龍應台) has long wielded influence through the power of words. Her articles once served as a moral compass for a society in transition. However, as her April 1 guest article in the New York Times, “The Clock Is Ticking for Taiwan,” makes all too clear, even celebrated prose can mislead when romanticism clouds political judgement. Lung crafts a narrative that is less an analysis of Taiwan’s geopolitical reality than an exercise in wistful nostalgia. As political scientists and international relations academics, we believe it is crucial to correct the misconceptions embedded in her article,
Sung Chien-liang (宋建樑), the leader of the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) efforts to recall Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lee Kun-cheng (李坤城), caused a national outrage and drew diplomatic condemnation on Tuesday after he arrived at the New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office dressed in a Nazi uniform. Sung performed a Nazi salute and carried a copy of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf as he arrived to be questioned over allegations of signature forgery in the recall petition. The KMT’s response to the incident has shown a striking lack of contrition and decency. Rather than apologizing and distancing itself from Sung’s actions,
US President Trump weighed into the state of America’s semiconductor manufacturing when he declared, “They [Taiwan] stole it from us. They took it from us, and I don’t blame them. I give them credit.” At a prior White House event President Trump hosted TSMC chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家), head of the world’s largest and most advanced chip manufacturer, to announce a commitment to invest US$100 billion in America. The president then shifted his previously critical rhetoric on Taiwan and put off tariffs on its chips. Now we learn that the Trump Administration is conducting a “trade investigation” on semiconductors which
RSS