Hon Hai Precision Industry Co founder Terry Gou (郭台銘) has called on Taiwan People’s Party Chairman and presidential candidate Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) and New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜), the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) presidential nominee, to sit down and have coffee with him.
Likening the three of them to the three little pigs of the children’s fable, their fate threatened by the “big bad wolf” — the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) candidate, Vice President William Lai (賴清德) — Gou said that unless the “anti-green alliance” can sit down and develop a concerted plan, Lai would win next year’s election.
Pan-blue pundits are losing patience with Gou. Former TVBS news anchor Lee Yen-chiou (李艷秋) wrote on Facebook on Tuesday that the “three little pigs” were grinding down voters’ enthusiasm for a transfer of power. She pointed to a poll which showed that, whereas previously 60 percent of voters wanted to see the DPP out of government, the figure had fallen to only 40 percent.
Lee attributed the decline to the three candidates not working to push home the message of why so many voters wanted fresh faces in power.
Lee accused Hou of being weak and Ko of shooting off his mouth, while Gou was throwing around his money and taking aim at people who are supposed to be on his side.
Recent polling had Lai at 43.4 percent compared with Ko’s 26.6 percent and Hou’s 13.6 percent. If Gou’s supporters think the polls lend credence to his urgency for unity among the “three little pigs,” they should heed the words of Broadcasting Corp of China chairman Jaw Shaw-kong (趙少康), who told Gou that Ko and Hou polling behind Lai was in no small part due to Gou’s actions. Jaw asked him to either declare his candidacy or announce which candidate he would support.
Why is this still an issue? Why is Gou still prancing in the wings, tossing banana skins and provocations onto the stage while the main acts are attempting to perform? Jaw is right: Gou should stop lobbing bombs at the weak and distracted.
Jaw likened Gou’s “coffee invitation” to the infamous Hongmen feast of Chinese history: For those more familiar with Game of Thrones than ancient Chinese lore, think of the Red Wedding episode.
From his answer to a question during an event in New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋) on Sunday, Gou seems to want to work out a system with Ko and Hou where they talk through their ideas and leave it to the electorate to decide which ideas and which coalition ticket they would prefer. In other words, he is still pushing to be invited to the party and given the best seat at the table.
It sounds like the “Three Little Pigs,” albeit with a twist at the end in which the youngest, weakest of the three turns out to be the Big Bad Wolf in disguise, feigning brotherly affection to wheedle his way in and pounce when the other two are least expecting it.
That would require thwarting those who were seeking an alliance and only makes sense if the ultimate goal is to eliminate them. It is no wonder Jaw talked about the Hongmen feast.
Rather than band together, Gou, Hou and Ko should concentrate on their own campaigns. Ko is trying to, while Hou is not being allowed to by Gou, who has not announced one. They need to let go of each other.
Gou needs to let go first, but Ko and Hou must work harder to shake him off.
Taiwan stands at the epicenter of a seismic shift that will determine the Indo-Pacific’s future security architecture. Whether deterrence prevails or collapses will reverberate far beyond the Taiwan Strait, fundamentally reshaping global power dynamics. The stakes could not be higher. Today, Taipei confronts an unprecedented convergence of threats from an increasingly muscular China that has intensified its multidimensional pressure campaign. Beijing’s strategy is comprehensive: military intimidation, diplomatic isolation, economic coercion, and sophisticated influence operations designed to fracture Taiwan’s democratic society from within. This challenge is magnified by Taiwan’s internal political divisions, which extend to fundamental questions about the island’s identity and future
Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) is expected to be summoned by the Taipei City Police Department after a rally in Taipei on Saturday last week resulted in injuries to eight police officers. The Ministry of the Interior on Sunday said that police had collected evidence of obstruction of public officials and coercion by an estimated 1,000 “disorderly” demonstrators. The rally — led by Huang to mark one year since a raid by Taipei prosecutors on then-TPP chairman and former Taipei mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) — might have contravened the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法), as the organizers had
Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) last week made a rare visit to the Philippines, which not only deepened bilateral economic ties, but also signaled a diplomatic breakthrough in the face of growing tensions with China. Lin’s trip marks the second-known visit by a Taiwanese foreign minister since Manila and Beijing established diplomatic ties in 1975; then-minister Chang Hsiao-yen (章孝嚴) took a “vacation” in the Philippines in 1997. As Taiwan is one of the Philippines’ top 10 economic partners, Lin visited Manila and other cities to promote the Taiwan-Philippines Economic Corridor, with an eye to connecting it with the Luzon
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) has postponed its chairperson candidate registration for two weeks, and so far, nine people have announced their intention to run for chairperson, the most on record, with more expected to announce their campaign in the final days. On the evening of Aug. 23, shortly after seven KMT lawmakers survived recall votes, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) announced he would step down and urged Taichung Mayor Lu Shiow-yen (盧秀燕) to step in and lead the party back to power. Lu immediately ruled herself out the following day, leaving the subject in question. In the days that followed, several
RSS