The top brass of Taiwan’s Kuomintang party has high hopes that Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu can erase the ignominy of the presidential election defeat in 2016, when Tsai Ing-wen of the Democratic Progressive Party seized leadership of the self-ruled island state. This time, the bigwigs of the Beijing-friendly KMT believe that, by riding on the coattails of the party’s victories in Taiwan’s regional elections late last year, the populist Han has a decent chance to grab the presidency in January and end Tsai’s time in power. Beijing’s cadres certainly concur with these views, as they reportedly devised plans to help Han clinch the position of mayor in Kaohsiung, a traditional DPP stronghold.
