Han Kuo-Yu is wildly popular, but his policy positions — or lack thereof — should be cause for concern, given Taiwan’s delicate situation.Whoever wins the 2020 Taiwan presidential elections will inherit a difficult office. Taiwan’s ailing economy and its fraught relations with the Chinese mainland demand strong and careful leadership. Current polling indicates that some 50 percent of Taiwanese voters believe Han Kuo-Yu, the popular (and populist) mayor of Kaohsiung, is fit for the job.
His brash, direct way of speech has won him broad support, and his popularity is such that the media have called his brand of politics the “Han Wave.” Han is the opposition Kuomintang (KMT) party’s best chance at election, with a clear lead over other presidential contenders, such as Eric Chu, the former mayor of New Taipei and the KMT’s presidential candidate in 2016, and the incumbent President Tsai Ing-wen, of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).
