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Presidential elections are scheduled to be held in Taiwan on 13 January 2024.[1] Incumbent President Tsai Ing-wen of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), who was reelected in 2020, is ineligible to seek a third term. The winner of the 2024 presidential election is scheduled to be inaugurated on 20 May 2024.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024_Taiwanese_presidential_election
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Focus Taiwan
CNA English News
ELECTION 2024/Terry Gou to pursue KMT presidential nomination
04/05/2023 05:07 PM
Taipei, April 5 (CNA) Business tycoon Terry Gou (郭台銘), founder of the world’s biggest contract manufacturing company, has announced he will seek the presidential nomination of the opposition Kuomintang (KMT) in Taiwan’s 2024 presidential election.
Gou said at a news conference Wednesday that if he is nominated by the KMT as its presidential candidate, he would do his best to unite the “non-green camp,” referring to all those who do not support the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), and unseat the DPP.
“I hope I will represent the KMT to compete with the DPP’s Lai Ching-te (賴清德) in a battle of gentlemen,” Gou said.
Lai, the incumbent vice president, is the only DPP figure to announce his candidacy to date and is expected to be nominated by the party as its presidential candidate in mid-April.
Gou will have obstacles to hurdle if he wants to get the KMT’s nomination, including his behavior in 2019, when he lost the KMT presidential primary to then Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) and later withdrew from the party in September 2019.
“My exit from the KMT four years ago disappointed many party supporters. I am very sorry for that,” Gou said Wednesday.
“But I think I have to shoulder my responsibility and do my best for the 23 million people in Taiwan at a dangerous time in global politics by contributing the experience, wisdom and connections I have built in the international arena,” Gou said.
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At his press conference in Taiwan on Wednesday, Gou reiterated that Taiwan’s biggest problem was its economy, and the need for technology development and innovation. He also said politics could not be separated from economic development.
“Taiwan’s current wealth is built on stability across the Taiwan Strait, regional mutual benefit, and global prosperity,” Gou said.
“As a pivotal part of the ongoing tensions between the U.S. and China and an important economic link between the U.S. and China, Taiwan has the ability to resolve the conflicts as long as the country has a leader who has a vision to pursue and maintain peace.”
Gou argued that Taiwan should not take sides in conflicts between Washington and Beijing or it will become a direct victim, and said Taiwan needed to unseat the DPP.
https://focustaiwan.tw/politics/202304050011
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Le Monde
China is at the heart of Taiwan’s presidential election
Eight months before the high stakes presidential and legislative elections in January 2024, the election campaign between the party of the outgoing president and the main opposition party, the Kuomintang, has begun.
By Frédéric Lemaître(Beijing (China) correspondent) Published on April 28, 2023, at 4:50 am (Paris), updated on April 28, 2023, at 9:10 am
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https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2023/04/28/in-taiwan-china-is-at-the-heart-of-the-presidential-election_6024647_4.html
In Taiwan, the election campaign has already begun. While voters will not choose their new president and representatives until January 13, 2024, vehicles bearing images of the candidates are already crisscrossing the main streets of the capital.
At the end of her second term, president Tsai Ing-wen still enjoys a popularity rating that would make many politicians green with envy. Approximately 45% of Taiwanese are satisfied with her performance, but the constitution prohibits her from running for a third term. Her political party, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), has already prepared for battle and has nominated the current vice president, Lai Ching-te (better known by his English name, William Lai) as their candidate, who will represent the “green” camp. Having served as prime minister under President Tsai from September 2017 to January 2019, and as vice president since May 2020, Lai embodies continuity.
In the opposing nationalist Kuomintang (KMT) party, otherwise known as the “blue” camp, the situation is less clear. After considering holding primaries, KMT president Eric Chu has decided to designate the candidate himself. The favorite is Hou Yu-ih, the current mayor of New Taipei…
https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2023/04/28/in-taiwan-china-is-at-the-heart-of-the-presidential-election_6024647_4.html
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The Diplomat
With DPP’s Candidate Pick, Taiwan’s 2024 Presidential Race Begins
William Lai is already positioning the race as a referendum on China policy, while the KMT (and Beijing) are trying to emphasize economic issues.
By Shannon Tiezzi
April 14, 2023
Taiwan’s presidential race is starting to heat up, with the ruling Democratic Progressive Party tapping Vice President William Lai as its candidate…
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Lai attempted to thread the needle in his acceptance speech between reassuring potentially nervous observers at home and abroad and not alienating the party’s base. He emphasized that Taiwan has “NO [sic] need to declare independence” – but only because Taiwan “is, in fact, already a sovereign nation.” He categorically dismissed the idea that Taiwan is “part of ‘the PRC’s scared and unalienable territory.’” And Lai also emphasized that “the vast majority of Taiwanese people” don’t accept either the “1992 Consensus” or China’s “one country, two systems” framework for unification.
Rather than shying away from the question of China policy, Lai is very much framing this election around cross-strait relations and foreign policy.
Lai contrasted Tsai’s recent trip abroad – including two stopovers in the United States – with former President Ma Ying-jeou of the Kuomintang (KMT)’s simultaneous trip to China. “The two trips could not have been more different in their significance and the values they reflect,” Lai intoned. “Former President Ma intended to re-subject Taiwan to the One China framework. President Tsai, meanwhile, marched toward a democratic and international future.”
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Heading off the KMT’s usual criticism that the DPP’s cross-strait policies have actually endangered Taiwan by provoking China, Lai insisted that “The 2024 election is NOT a choice between ‘war’ and ‘peace,’ but one between ‘democracy’ and ‘authoritarianism.’”
.By contrast, the KMT will try to keep the focus on bread-and-butter issues, as the DPP faces lower approval ratings when it comes to domestic policies. That was a major factor behind the KMT’s victories in the 2022 local elections, which are usually dominated by domestic concerns. As Hioe noted for The Diplomat, “the DPP did not handle domestic issues such as low salaries, unaffordable housing, and Taiwan’s demographic woes with a declining birthrate and growing elderly population to voters’ satisfaction. As a result, the DPP was punished for it” in the local polls.
By contrast, the KMT will try to keep the focus on bread-and-butter issues, as the DPP faces lower approval ratings when it comes to domestic policies. That was a major factor behind the KMT’s victories in the 2022 local elections, which are usually dominated by domestic concerns. As Hioe noted for The Diplomat, “the DPP did not handle domestic issues such as low salaries, unaffordable housing, and Taiwan’s demographic woes with a declining birthrate and growing elderly population to voters’ satisfaction. As a result, the DPP was punished for it” in the local polls.
The KMT will determine its candidate by June 18, with the process starting on April 18. So far, Terry Gou, the founder of Foxconn, has announced he will seek the nomination, following his unsuccessful bid in 2020. New Taipei Mayor Hou Yu-ih is seen as the frontrunner, though he has not officially announced his campaign yet.
https://thediplomat.com/2023/04/with-dpps-candidate-pick-taiwans-2024-presidential-race-begins/
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Foxconn founder Terry Gou again bids to become Taiwan’s president
Manufacturer’s close ties to China match the party position, perhaps not the public mood
Simon Sharwood
Wed 19 Apr 2023 // 02:28 UTC
Terry Gou, the founder and former CEO of Taiwanese contract manufacturing titan Hon Hai Precision Industry (aka Foxconn) is making a second attempt to become president and therefore head of state of the democracy.
The 72 year old Guo bid for the presidency in 2019, running in primary elections for Kuomintang, the Chinese Nationalist Party that warred with the Chinese Communist Party, lost, and in 1949 retreated to Taiwan.
Guo was not elected as Kuomintang’s candidate for the presidency and quit the party. But he’s since rejoined and launched a fresh bid for the gig.
In media appearances this week, Guo has told Taiwanese outlets he will deliver a detailed manifesto in around a month. In the interim, he’s articulated a position of ensuring Taiwan’s future prosperity and independence from both China and the USA.
The billionaire faces considerable obstacles. For starters Kuomintang’s leaders have previously indicated their preference for New Taipei Mayor Hou Yu-ih as the party’s nominee. Guo has appealed to the court of public opinion, stating that he thinks party leaders will do well to consider public opinion ratings as a criterion.
Foxconn’s success and status as a flagship of Taiwanese success and ingenuity means Guo is widely admired, but Mayor Hou is regarded [PDF] as Taiwan’s most trustworthy lawmaker, albeit in polls take before Guo stated his intention to enter the race.
Read the article here:
https://www.theregister.com/2023/04/19/foxconn_founder_guo_taiwan_president/
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