EvEryman

president, while another DPP president might continue Tsai’s arms-length relationship with the mainland, the repudiation of the 1992 Consensus, and draw Taiwan firmly into the side of the US and Japan against China’s determination to “reunify.”

AS DISCUSSED in my previous article last Monday, April 3, the forthcoming presidential elections in January, 2024could prove to be crossroads that could determine Xi Jin-ping’s next move on what he considers a “renegade province.” general of the National Police Agency before becoming deputy mayor of New Taipei under Mayor Chu.

The present leadership is held by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) under President Tsai Ing-wen. Its main rival is the National People’s Party, also referred to as the Nationalist Party, or Kuo-min-tang (KMT).

The KMT was brought into the island by Chiang Kai-shek after he lost to the CPP under Mao Tse-tung after the Second World War and was forced to flee the mainland.

Since 1949, Chiang held Taiwan under an iron grip with the support of the US of A, and, upon his death in 1975, he was succeeded by a transition leader until his son Chiang Ching-kuo, was elected in 1978 and whose regime slowly liberalized the authoritarian rule of his father.

When Chiang Ching-kuo died of a heart attack arising from diabetes complications in 1988, he was succeeded by his vice-president, Lee Tenghui, a former mayor of Taipei, who, as president, proceeded to fully dismantle authoritarian rule into a democratic system, where the president was chosen by the population in direct vote, as well as lower positions.

And in the face of the currently strong antimainland and pro-Western sentiment of voters, especially after the forceful quelling of Hong Kong activists and the establishment of a “puppet” government in the former British crown colony, KMT’s chosen candidate in 2024 will likely tiptoe carefully on the subject of independence versus the “One China-Two Systems” solution that Beijing proffers.

Since 1992, the Taiwan electorate had never given the two major parties, the “blue” KMT’s or the “green” DPP, a continuing mandate beyond two straight terms. If the trend continues, feng shui should give KMT an edge.

The KMT under Eric Chu’s chairmanship has taken a prudent stance vis-à-vis the mainland, not espousing independence, but proposing the strengthening of mutually beneficial economic partnership.

His becoming chairman of KMT largely dismantled the “old guard” and invited younger blood into what has been derisively termed as a “jurassic” party controlled by political “dinosaurs.”

There is a former KMT stalwart who resigned in 2020 after an unsuccessful try for the party’s presidential nomination, billionaire Terry Gou, Hon Hai Precision (better known as Foxconn International) chairman, whose company is the world’s largest electronics manufacturer, counting Apple as its major customer.

A marine technologist turned successful businessman, Gou, 73 by January, has once again publicly announced his intention to run for the presidency, and would re-apply as KMT.

Still quite young at 45 come voting time is KMT’s newly elected Taipei City Mayor Chang Wan-an, popularly nicknamed Wayne, who is the great grandson of the dictator Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, a two-term legislator and a lawyer who finished at the University of Pennsylvania and thereafter became a corporate lawyer in California before returning to Taipei to establish his legal practice and enter politics.

Preceding Wayne Chiang as mayor of Taipei, Ko Wen-je, another medical doctor, who after serving two terms from 2014 till 2022, is touted to be interested in running for president come January under his Taiwan People’s Party, a third force.

Taipei City election results last November 26 were an embarrassment to outgoing mayor Ko, and could dampen support for his presidential plans. He is now in the US to test the waters.