The nationwide buzz over a potential joint opposition presidential bid between the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) stands in contrast to its moribund state, with signs of the negotiations heading for a breakdown. The reason the “blue-white alliance” has turned into a Gordian knot is that both parties fail to see eye to eye on political stances and ideology.
However, no one is walking more of a tightrope than Hon Hai Precision Industry Co founder Terry Gou (郭台銘).
Gou can be likened to Shakespeare’s Hamlet, the Danish prince who vacillates between action and inaction. In Gou’s case, it is vacillating between seeing his independent campaign through to the end or calling it quits. After all, Gou found himself caught between three powers: the US, China and the Taiwanese public.
On the one hand, he has China holding a knife behind his back, with Chinese authorities investigating the company in China with tax and compliance issues.
On the other hand, the US is nudging him to run by helping Tammy Lai (賴佩霞), his running mate, “accelerate” her application process of forfeiting her US citizenship, which under normal circumstances would take three to six months, but took Lai less than 40 days.
Caught between Scylla and Charybdis, Gou has another issue. As the Central Election Commission regulations say that Gou and Lai had to prove by Thursday last week that they had 289,667 signatures to be eligible to register as candidates, the pair made it over the threshold with more than 1.03 million signatures, a number that shows he has a degree of support and that he would let down a fair share of people if he were to quit. It was probably due to the pressure of these three powers that Gou did not make a grand show when submitting the signatures.
As Gou’s popularity has nosedived in recent months, TPP Chairman and presidential candidate Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), or New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜), the KMT’s candidate, are still thinking of courting his support.
According to polling, if either Ko or Hou win over Gou’s supporters, the effect would amount to a support rate increase of about 7 to 10 percentage points. Rather than looking for an ally who does not share the same party goals, perhaps the KMT could reconsider Gou as a potential ally. Given Gou’s history with the KMT, albeit one with histrionics and drama, it is apparent that Gou’s ideology falls in line with the KMT and would prove an easier candidate to cozy up to than with Ko.
Gou’s forte is that he does not have any party baggage, nor does he have to deal with the issue of legislative seats or party ballots. For supporters of the pan-blue camp, Gou could be a more “comfortable” solution than Ko, not to mention that a large percentage of Gou’s supporters are independent voters or young people, which overlaps with Ko’s supporters. If allied together, the KMT would be able to bring Ko’s haughtiness down a notch and could deal a blow to Ko’s support. Gou’s diplomatic vision and monetary resources could give an edge to the KMT’s campaign. Furthermore, Gou and the KMT see eye to eye on a host of issues, including economic development and cross-strait policy.
Vice versa, if Ko gets to Gou first, Ko would solidify second place and obtain more than 300 signature collection offices as his campaign stations overnight. It would also take a further step in marginalizing Hou from the race, a move that the KMT would have to take caution over.
Gou’s Hamlet moment could become a turning point in the campaign for either the KMT or the TPP. The only question that remains is who gets to him first.
As former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) concludes his fourth visit to China since leaving office, Taiwan finds itself once again trapped in a familiar cycle of political theater. The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has criticized Ma’s participation in the Straits Forum as “dancing with Beijing,” while the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) defends it as an act of constitutional diplomacy. Both sides miss a crucial point: The real question is not whether Ma’s visit helps or hurts Taiwan — it is why Taiwan lacks a sophisticated, multi-track approach to one of the most complex geopolitical relationships in the world. The disagreement reduces Taiwan’s
Former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) is visiting China, where he is addressed in a few ways, but never as a former president. On Sunday, he attended the Straits Forum in Xiamen, not as a former president of Taiwan, but as a former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairman. There, he met with Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference Chairman Wang Huning (王滬寧). Presumably, Wang at least would have been aware that Ma had once been president, and yet he did not mention that fact, referring to him only as “Mr Ma Ying-jeou.” Perhaps the apparent oversight was not intended to convey a lack of
A foreign colleague of mine asked me recently, “What is a safe distance from potential People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Rocket Force’s (PLARF) Taiwan targets?” This article will answer this question and help people living in Taiwan have a deeper understanding of the threat. Why is it important to understand PLA/PLARF targeting strategy? According to RAND analysis, the PLA’s “systems destruction warfare” focuses on crippling an adversary’s operational system by targeting its networks, especially leadership, command and control (C2) nodes, sensors, and information hubs. Admiral Samuel Paparo, commander of US Indo-Pacific Command, noted in his 15 May 2025 Sedona Forum keynote speech that, as
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) last week announced that the KMT was launching “Operation Patriot” in response to an unprecedented massive campaign to recall 31 KMT legislators. However, his action has also raised questions and doubts: Are these so-called “patriots” pledging allegiance to the country or to the party? While all KMT-proposed campaigns to recall Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers have failed, and a growing number of local KMT chapter personnel have been indicted for allegedly forging petition signatures, media reports said that at least 26 recall motions against KMT legislators have passed the second signature threshold
RSS