Straits Times
Date: Mar 22, 2019
TAIPEI (BLOOMBERG) – For officials in Beijing looking for a Taiwanese presidential
Kaohsiung mayor Han kuo-yu’s success in winning over younger voters has built buzz among KMT supporters and others who want closer China ties.PHOTO: TWHEROHAN/FACEBOOK
candidate who improves the island’s fraught ties with the mainland, Mr Han Kuo-yu is saying all the right things. The question is whether he runs.
The new mayor of the southern city of Kaohsiung last month described Taiwan and China as partners in an “arranged marriage” who had fallen “madly in love”.
He has also said that peace talks were “inevitable” between the democratically run Taiwan and the Communist Party-ruled mainland.
Such blunt talk contrasts with Taiwan’s current president, Ms Tsai Ing-wen, a cautious critic of China who’s bracing for a tough re-election fight after bruising policy battles and an isolation campaign by Beijing. [FULL STORY]
