TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Kuomintang (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) suddenly cut short an interview with Deutsche Welle (DW) after the journalist mentioned that his party is suffering from a low approval rating of 14%.
On Tuesday (Sept. 6), DW released an eight-minute video of an interview Richard Walker held with Chu in the wake of KMT Vice Chair Andrew Hsia's (夏立言) controversial visit to China from Aug. 10-27. When asked about the KMT's declining popularity and a possible run for president, Chu abruptly axed the interview.
During the interview, Chu emphasized the importance of maintaining a dialogue with China to reduce the risk of war. Walker pointed out that the pitfall of relying solely on dialogue is that while Beijing threatens to use force to annex Taiwan, only 6.5% of Taiwanese agree with "unification" with China, according to the National Chengchi University’s (NCCU's) Election Study Center.
Chu responded that polls show that the majority of Taiwanese wish to maintain the status quo. Walker interjected that Chinese Chairman Xi Jinping (習近平) does not want the status quo and Chu quickly responded that the "KMT's position is to maintain (the) status quo, clearly."
Walker noted that in the latest NCCU poll, the KMT's popularity rating has dropped to 14%. Chu quickly exhorted Walker to not use "any wrong information" from the poll.
Chu began to say that KMT party polls show a different result, but Walker argued that the data is from the "respected NCCU poll." Chu insisted that KMT polls show the party's favorability still rising compared to the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).
The KMT head asserted that the coming Taiwanese local elections are the "best poll." Walker asked Chu if he would run in the 2024 presidential election, to which Chu said "No!"
Chu then reiterated that the coming election is the optimal poll, "You can see. Our party will win the election." As Walker continued asking if Chu could clarify if he was referring to the 2022 local elections or the 2024 presidential election, Chu said, "Thank you very much, Richard. Thank you for your interview and the time is up."
笑死》朱立倫被外媒問到無法招架，強制結束訪談 pic.twitter.com/kjCJIcMxoy
— 李宇辰 (@yuchenlee2021) September 6, 2022
