TAICHUNG (Taiwan News) — Rumors like poison darts are flying furiously in the media, Kuomintang (KMT) politicians are increasingly in open revolt against party central and party Chair Eric Chu (朱立倫), while party central is increasingly threatening their own people to try to force them back into line, potentially risking pushing them out of the party, or worse for the KMT, defecting to the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP).
What else is going on in the presidential race that is largely not covered in English?
The only mildly interesting thing to happen recently in the slow, cautious Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) campaign of Lai Ching-te (賴清德) was that he got a piece published in the Wall Street Journal which can be summarized simply: “I’m Tsai Ing-wen 2.0.” It presumably helped reassure the Americans that he is not going to declare a Taiwan Republic and plunge the planet into war and blast the world economy into the stone age. The KMT predictably panned it.
Lai’s campaign has been slick, professional and steady, but since he is campaigning on carrying forward the current administration’s agenda, it is not a very interesting campaign to watch. The number of links I have saved related to his campaign is only 86, compared to over 200 or 300 for the other candidates.
Lai has mostly been campaigning to regain the youth vote, which has abandoned the DPP in droves for the TPP. Lai recently got the Cabinet to approve a NT$35,000 subsidy for students attending private universities.
The KMT accused Lai of pandering to the youth vote, which is almost certainly true. Then KMT Chair Eric Chu, no doubt also worried that his party also has almost no support among young voters, decided to up the pandering ante by proposing to make all public universities entirely free.
Ko's Hokey-Pokey on China trade
The campaign of the TPP candidate Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) has been a bit more interesting. First, Ko appeared to want to revive the trade services pact with China, then backed off on it, then appeared to re-embrace it, but only in a phased way, then backed off it again while his team was touting how to improve it, and now his team is claiming Ko never publicly brought it up in the first place.
Confused? Everyone is. Maybe Ko was describing his strategy on the pact when asked if he was bringing up the pact to win over deep blue voters and he said: “I want everyone’s vote.” In this case, it appears like he’s covering all bases, taking all positions on the issue at once.
Ko and the TPP's think tank are working on a white paper outlining the party's platform and Ko has repeatedly referenced that it will be the definitive stance of the party when released. Presumably, that will finally clarify where the party stands on the issue.
Meanwhile, in hopes of influencing the discourse in the presidential race, former Sunflower Movement luminary and New Power Party (NPP) Chair Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) and heavily tattooed bodybuilder, gym magnate and famed Youtube commentator Holger Chen (陳之漢 aka 館長) announced plans in a slickly produced rap video entitled “Corrupt Officials” depicting the DPP and the KMT as gangsters for a “Fairness and Justice to Save Taiwan” (公平正義救台灣) march on July 16. They hope to bring attention to issues like the housing affordability crisis, but my concern is that by starting it at two in the afternoon in Taipei in July they may end up doing more to bring attention to the dangers of heat stroke.
This has turned into a bit of a circus, though with the colorful Holger Chen involved, that is no surprise. Among other things, he was shot twice by gangsters from the Bamboo Union in 2020, and of course, being who he is, livestreamed the experience.
Huang Kuo-chang is also a media magnet, not only playing a very visible role in the Sunflower Movement, co-founded the New Power Party, got elected to the legislature but was nearly recalled, had a tumultuous reign as chair of the NPP and has made a career of delivering stoney-faced, moralistic lectures against the government over various issues like corruption, malfeasance, and illegal activities. It turns out in the runup to the march it was revealed that he was illegally operating an unlicensed parking lot and there were questions about whether he was paying tax on it.
Holger Chen and Huang Kuo-chang in a screengrab from the Corrupt Officials video. Don't drink and drive.
Candidates on the march
Their march has successfully attracted a lot of attention. In only 72 minutes, they reached their fundraising target of NT$2 million.
They attracted the support of Ko Wen-je, whose party their launch video did not attack, and posed with him in photos at a press event. In spite of his party being one of the targets of the march and being pilloried in the video, KMT presidential candidate Hou Yu-ih (侯友宜) also said he would attend, though no photo-op was offered to him.
Furthering the theme of attracting potential presidential contenders, Foxconn founder Terry Gou (郭台銘) said he would also attend. Multiple sources have come forward claiming that they have inside knowledge that he is going to launch an independent presidential run, and though he has not formally declared, he has been acting very much like a candidate.
Lai Ching-te has not announced plans to attend. This is hardly surprising considering the theme of the march is in large part directed at the current DPP administration.
I hope the candidates and any of you planning to attend the march please stay hydrated, use sun screen with UV protection and consider bringing umbrellas. As of writing this column, the world has experienced a string of the hottest days on record, Taiwan has been experiencing high levels of UV radiation, Taipei suffers from the urban heat island effect and all that body heat and humidity from the large crowds potentially make this march dangerous. Please stay safe.
Finally, all the candidates have joined the new social media platform Threads. Coverage of how they all fared dipping their toes in the water can be found in this piece here on Taiwan News.
