The first inklings that Chinese Nationalist Party Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) was going to nominate New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) as the party’s presidential candidate over Hon Hai Precision Industry Co founder Terry Gou (郭台銘) came when KMT Taipei City Councilor Chin Huei-chu (秦慧珠) early yesterday morning wrote on Facebook: “Congratulations Hou You-yi, many thanks to Terry Gou, bless the KMT! Go, go, go.”
Gou’s supporters flooded Chu’s Facebook page with frantic pleas of support for Gou’s candidacy, saying that they could never support Hou for president if Gou were left out in the cold.
Former KMT legislator Chiu Yi (邱毅) had predicted that Gou would respond in one of three ways: two that would be good for party unity, and one damaging to it. The latter would be Gou reacting in anger to a perceived slight from Chu, avoiding the KMT Central Standing Committee meeting in the afternoon and considering standing as an independent or teaming up with Taiwan People’s Party Chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) on a joint ticket.
This could have led to a repeat of the 2000 election, when Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) won after a disgruntled James Soong (宋楚瑜) split the pan-blue vote and blocked former KMT chairman Lien Chan’s (連戰) path to power.
As it happened, Gou reacted to the official confirmation of Hou’s nomination with a promise to offer his support and work to facilitate victory for Hou.
He is right to do so. This makes it easier for Chu and the KMT to secure the unity they make so much of at every major election, simply by virtue of the difficulty in achieving it.
It would certainly be interesting to see how the party old guard get behind Hou, as he has never been regarded as one of the party elite, and was born and bred in Taiwan: The KMT has traditionally kept “local” figures with no links to China very much at arm’s length.
Hou was the right choice. With his business bravado and lack of political experience, Gou was too much of a political wild card. The president of Taiwan needs to be very skillful on the domestic and international stages.
Hou has proven to be of sufficient mettle domestically; he is very much untested internationally.
Responding to news of Hou’s official nomination, Ko told former New Power Party legislator Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) during a radio broadcast that Hou’s biggest problem is that nobody has any idea what his stance is on cross-strait relations.
At least on this front, Hou has an advantage over the DPP’s candidate, Vice President William Lai (賴清德). If he is elected president, Beijing is likelier to talk to him, assuming he continues the KMT’s longstanding recognition of the so-called “1992 consensus.” Conversely, China is unlikely to show any interest sitting at the negotiating table with Lai.
Herein lies the problem with Hou’s reticence at confirming his stance thus far: He might be committed to protecting the Republic of China and the territorial integrity of Taiwan proper, Kinmen, Matsu and the Penghu islands, but that position is essentially Taiwan independence by another name — and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) cannot be expected to buy a minute of that.
The die is now cast, and it is up to Taiwanese and the media to scrutinize Hou’s plans and preparations for taking on the Chinese Communist Party.
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
The military is conducting its annual Han Kuang exercises in phases. The minister of national defense recently said that this year’s scenarios would simulate defending the nation against possible actions the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) might take in an invasion of Taiwan, making the threat of a speculated Chinese invasion in 2027 a heated agenda item again. That year, also referred to as the “Davidson window,” is named after then-US Indo-Pacific Command Admiral Philip Davidson, who in 2021 warned that Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) had instructed the PLA to be ready to invade Taiwan by 2027. Xi in 2017
RSS