KMT presidential nominee Hou Yu-ih vows to return party to power
ROC Central News Agency
05/17/2023 05:06 PM
Taipei, May 17 (CNA) New Taipei Mayor Hou Yu-ih (侯友宜) said on Wednesday that he will unite supporters and lead the Kuomintang (KMT) to a return to power in the 2024 presidential election, after the opposition party nominated him as its candidate in the race.
"We must be determined to engage in disruptive change if we want there to be another shift in power," Hou said, after his nomination was announced by KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) at a meeting of the Central Standing Committee Wednesday.
At a time when the nation is facing fierce challenges internationally and internal divisions that have left many things still to be done, and young generations see no future for themselves, only when the KMT returns to power "can we save the nation and save Taiwan," Hou said.
Safeguarding the Republic of China (ROC), the formal name of Taiwan, while loving the people and the land of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matzu islands is his "lifelong" belief, he said, referring to the territory under the jurisdiction of the ROC.
The KMT's Central Standing Committee in March gave Chu a mandate to "draft" anyone with the best chance to defeat the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in the election in January 2024, at a time when no one in the party had declared their candidacy.
After considering "scientific data and the opinions of local government heads and lawmakers...I solemnly declare that our party has drafted Hou Yu-ih to run in the Republic of China's 2024 presidential election," Chu told the meeting, which was open to the media.
Hou was widely billed as the KMT's preferred candidate in the race, but he has been very coy about his candidacy, presumably because he did not want to seem too eager to pursue the nomination so soon after being reelected as New Taipei mayor on Nov. 26, 2022.
By contrast, Terry Gou (郭台銘), the founder of Hon Hai Technology Group, had aggressively campaigned for the nomination since early April.
Throughout the campaign, Gou has held seminars and rallies to solicit public support while unveiling policy platforms on issues ranging from relations with China to subsidies for childcare.
Many had wondered how Gou would react to not winning the nomination, especially because he immediately quit the party in a fit of pique in 2019 after losing its poll-based presidential primary to then Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜).
This time, an hour before the KMT committee meeting, Gou voiced his support for Hou in a Facebook post, congratulating the mayor for being nominated as the KMT's presidential candidate.
"Mayor Hou has the most solid foundation of public support within the KMT, so it is only natural for him to assume greater responsibility. He is also the best candidate in the KMT," Gou wrote.
"I will keep my promise and do everything I can to support Mayor Hou to win the 2024 general election and get rid of the incompetent government," he wrote.
Both Chu and Hou thanked Gou for the business tycoon's "show of solidarity" ahead of the three-way race that will feature Vice President Lai Ching-te (賴清德) of the DPP and former Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) of the Taiwan People's Party.
Chu praised Gou as the most important leader of the pan-blue camp and partner the KMT must work with to score election victory, defend the ROC, and secure cross-strait peace.
During Gou's campaign, he voiced his support for the "1992 consensus," proposing that the idea of "one China, different interpretations" can serve as a basis for the two sides to resume negotiations and ensure peace and stability.
According to the KMT, the "1992 consensus" refers to a tacit understanding reached in 1992 between the then-KMT government and its Chinese counterpart that both sides recognize there is only "one China," with each having its own interpretation of what China means.
The term "1992 consensus" was not coined until 2000 by former Mainland Affairs Council head Su Chi (蘇起).
The consensus was used as the formula to underpin closer ties between Taiwan and China when the KMT's Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) was president of the ROC from 2008 to 2016.
The DPP has rejected the so-called consensus, arguing that it is tantamount to accepting Beijing's "one China principle," which insists that there is only one China and that Taiwan is part of China.
Unlike Gou and most KMT politicians who strongly back the "1992 consensus," however, Hou has not endorsed that concept.
Hou has said little about international relations during his time as New Taipei mayor, but had begun voicing opinions on relations with China recently when fielding questions from his KMT colleagues at New Taipei City Council meetings, possibly to establish his credentials on major issues before the nomination.
On some occasions, Hou has said he opposed the "one country, two systems" formula proposed by Beijing for Taiwan to promote unification and he was against pursuing "Taiwan independence" because it "has no legal basis."
When asked about his position on the "1992 consensus" recently, Hou has replied by emphasizing the importance of safeguarding the ROC and its free and democratic system.
"The ROC is our country and Taiwan is our home. We have to take good care of our home and country," Hou said on May 9, in response to such questions.
Recently, Hou also drew an analogy between the "ROC and Taiwan" as "glass and water," urging people in Taiwan to reach a consensus on the "inseparable" relationship and the international community to recognize the ROC's existence.
Born to a family whose father was a veteran and a pork vendor in Chiayi County, the 65-year-old Hou began his police career in 1980 after graduating from Central Police University.
He worked his way up to serve as National Police Agency (NPA) chief before reaching the age of 50, becoming the youngest person ever to assume the top NPA post.
Hou rose to national prominence in the 1990s because of his involvement in investigating several high-profile kidnapping and fraud cases and murders and shootings that made national headlines, and he was promoted to NPA head during the previous DPP government.
After the KMT came to power in 2008, Hou was made president of Central Police University before stepping into politics two years later to serve as then New Taipei Mayor Eric Chu's deputy from 2010 to 2018.
During that time, he served as acting mayor for three months in 2015 when Chu took time off to make an unsuccessful run for president.
Hou first ran for office in 2018 and won the most votes ever for a New Taipei mayoral candidate with 1.16 million votes to defeat DPP rival Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌).
At the time, Hou faced criticism over his role in leading a raid that preceded the death of Freedom Era Weekly magazine publisher Nylon Cheng (鄭南榕) on April 7, 1989.
Cheng set himself on fire after 71 days of self-imposed isolation in the magazine's office to reject arrest by police on charges of sedition for publishing a draft "Taiwan Republic Constitution" in the magazine.
In an interview in 2018, Hou said that as chief of the criminal investigation division at the Taipei City Police Department's Zhongshan Precinct, he was following orders to execute the warranted arrest and was also trying to save lives.
Hou set another record for a New Taipei mayoral election in 2022 for winning by the biggest margin when he defeated DPP candidate Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) by over 450,000 votes to secure reelection.
(By Shih Hsiu-chuan and Sunrise Huang)
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