Controversies in the DPP and KMT regarding their choice of presidential candidate prove that factionalism is alive and well in both major political parties in Taiwan...
A visit by Kaohsiung mayor Han Kuo-yu to Hong Kong has provoked outrage from both Taiwan and Hong Kong politicians. Han is accused of infringing upon both Hong Kong and Taiwan’s sovereignty in directly meeting with Wang Zhimin, the director of Hong Kong’s Beijing Liaison Office, which represents the Chinese government in Hong Kong...
Speculation regarding whether Kaohsiung mayor Han Kuo-yu could or would run for president as the KMT’s presidential candidate in 2020 elections has exploded out into the open in the last few weeks...
News reports earlier this month that Han Kuo-yu’s inauguration was attended by 800,000 people once again prove how easily Taiwanese news is duped by false reporting. Namely, despite how unlikely it would be for the inauguration of Han Kuo-yu to be attended by 800,000 individuals, this is what was claimed by a number of Taiwanese media outlets including UDN, SET, China Times, and TTV...
The "September Political Struggle" between former president Ma Ying-Jeou and former majority speaker Wang Jinpyng is again back in the news, with Wang and Ma publicly trading barbs after the release of a new book by Ma detailing his presidential administration and defending past actions. The reemergence of these tensions perhaps points to the major splits within the KMT at present...
It seems highly likely that KMT city mayors will pursue a strategy of carrying out city-level exchanges with China going forward, a model originally pioneered by Taipei mayor Ko Wen-je that Kaohsiung mayor-elect Han Kuo-yu has also taken up. However, some DPP mayors may also be tempted to do the same, as observed in the example of Tainan mayor-elect Huang Wei-che expressing public interest in visiting China much like Ko or Han...
The Han Kuo-yu phenomenon continues full-steam, with constant coverage of Han in the Taiwanese media after his victory in the Kaohsiung mayoral election in late November. However, at the same time, a number of scandals have since emerged about Han’s past actions. And some controversy has begun regarding his early actions as Kaohsiung mayor...
International views of 2018 local elections in Taiwan, unsurprisingly, have in many cases skewed towards the assessment that China may have been the ultimate victor in nine-in-one elections. The KMT is very likely to leverage on this fact in the near future, to try and push for a new round of efforts to facilitate exchanges with China by way of the city-based exchange model pioneered by Taipei mayor Ko Wen-je. This would be a means of circumventing the central authority of the Tsai administration...
With mayorship of all of Taiwan’s six special municipalities up for the vote in 2018 local elections, the DPP looks like it may have a tough time holding onto its current political dominance in four out of the six municipalities. Some take the view that DPP losses in these municipalities will allow the KMT to rebuild momentum, which is why DPP losses could be worrying...
