Hon Hai Precision Industry Co founder Terry Gou (郭台銘) on Wednesday said he would seek the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) nomination for next year’s presidential election.
New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜), for many the top choice to run for the KMT, has been in the media spotlight for prevarication over whether he would throw his hat in. Since the Lunar New Year holiday, Hou has been acting as if he were under pressure to “take the crown.”
His behavior is reminiscent of another KMT member four years ago. After Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) was elected Kaohsiung mayor in 2018, he enjoyed a rapid ascent to stardom, and the KMT picked him as its presidential nominee.
Hou soon fell from grace. He lost the presidential election and was recalled as mayor.
The KMT has apparently not learned its lesson. Had it left Han as Kaohsiung mayor instead of having him enter the presidential race, things would be different.
To be president, candidates need to make solid cross-strait policy proposals, but Hou’s cross-strait experience is limited. He was invited by the Straits Exchange Foundation to participate in the investigation of the 1994 Qiandao Lake kidnappings of Taiwanese in China and was director-general of the National Police Agency from 2006 to 2008, with some of his work requiring cooperation with China.
However, his experience stopped when he became New Taipei City deputy mayor in 2010.
For Hou, questions about China and cross-strait relations are not easy. If he, without any preparation and guidance, were to go head-to-head against Vice President William Lai (賴清德), the Democratic Progressive Party’s presidential nominee, in a debate of those issues, the outcome would not be pretty.
The History of Ming says that Zhu Yuanzhang (朱元璋), the founder of the Ming Dynasty, accumulated military power and surrounded himself with talented people, but refrained from making a bid for the crown when he was building his kingdom. Hou should learn from Zhu’s example.
Shih Ya-hsuan is an associate professor in National Kaohsiung Normal University’s Department of Geography.
Translated by Rita Wang
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