TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The former president of Taiwan’s Control Yuan, Wang Chien-shien (王建煊), announced his candidacy for the upcoming presidential election set for January 2024.
On Wednesday (March 29), Wang held a press conference at the National Taiwan University Alumni Association to announce his bid for the presidency, reported UDN. Out of fear that Taiwan’s current existence may end, Wang called for cooperation with Beijing so that Taiwan can maintain its political system and avoid war.
Wang, who served as President of the Control Yuan from 2008 to 2014, is currently 84 years old. He was a founding member of the New Party, formerly the New Chinese Party, which advocates for unification with communist China.
At Wednesday's event, Wang revealed new business cards which feature a cartoonish picture of himself as a pig, which he jokingly explained is a reference to the insult of “foreign pig (外省豬),” which has been used to insult those who arrived from China in 1949. Wang claims to hear this insult often when he discusses the political unification of Taiwan with China.
“Even foreign pigs love Taiwan,” Wang said, “We have contributed a lot to Taiwan. If there is a war, I will definitely stay in Taiwan."
Wang, a former member of the Kuomintang, once ran for Taipei mayor in 1998 as a third party candidate against the KMT’s Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and the DPP’s Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁). In that race, he came in a distant third place with under 3% of the vote.
A decade later, in 2008, during the first year of the Ma administration, Ma appointed Wang to manage the Control Yuan. The Control Yuan is the supervisory organ of the government, tasked with auditing the other four branches.
As a Taiwanese politician with a favorable view of the Chinese Communist Party, Wang is unlikely to receive more than one or two percentage points of any national vote. His candidacy will likely serve as an annoyance to the KMT candidate, since he may draw votes away from the fringes of the pan-blue camp.
Wang’s candidacy is not expected to significantly impact Taiwan’s presidential race. However, if he does manage to join the general election, his participation will provide statistical information on the number of active voters in Taiwan who support political unification with China.
