China Power

Taiwan Is Swept by the ‘Han Wave’

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China Power

Taiwan Is Swept by the ‘Han Wave’

The populist mayor of Kaohsiung is a cultural phenomenon who looks set to make his presence known in Taiwan’s presidential race.

Taiwan Is Swept by the ‘Han Wave’

The KMT’s Han Kuo-yu reacts after winning the mayoral election in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, Nov. 24, 2018.

Credit: AP Photo

Han Kuo-yu is everywhere. To his supporters, he is a movement politician; a harbinger of hope smashing an ineffectual Taiwanese political order. To others, his rapid ascent from fringe figure of the Kuomintang (KMT) to mayor of Kaohsiung, Taiwan’s second-largest city, is a civic catastrophe. Regardless, Han Kuo-yu is ubiquitous, dominating news cycles like no other public official in Taiwan.

In a poll published in February by the Chinese-language Apple Daily, Han, who has been mayor for less than three months, notched a 35.1 percent approval rating for Taiwan’s upcoming 2020 presidential election, beating out other KMT presidential hopefuls and incumbent President Tsai Ing-wen of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). Han remains mum on whether he plans to run, but the fact Taiwan is having this conversation is itself astounding.

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