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Taiwan opposition party picks pro-China mayor for 2020 presidential race

Kaohsiung borough mayor Han Kuo-yu (C) from the Kuomintang party gestures while speaking to his supporters during a campaign event in Taipei on June 1, 2019.

Daniel Shih | AFP | Getty Effigies

Taiwan’s main opposition party on Monday picked a populist, pro-China mayor as its candidate for the 2020 presidential foot-race against an incumbent who often bashes Beijing.

The Nationalist Party chose Han Kuo-yu to run against incumbent Tsai Ing-wen in the January selection. He defeated former Foxconn Technology chairman Terry Gou in a party primary.

Han was supported by 45% of respondents in telephone point of view surveys over the past week, the party said. Gou was second with 28%. Three other candidates also sought the nomination.

Han has pledged to make peace with China. In March he signed deals with four Chinese cities to sell 5.2 billion New Taiwan dollars ($165 million) value of Taiwanese agricultural products.

He was elected mayor in November of the port city of Kaohsiung, normally a ruling-party stronghold, on vows to improve the local economy.

Tsai’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party suffered a major setback in the November neighbourhood elections amid voter dissatisfaction with her management of the economy.

She has since rebounded in popularity ratings by taking a sinewy stance against China, which has ratcheted up pressure on the self-governing island to reunite with the mainland.

China and Taiwan separated during cordial war in 1949, but Beijing still claims sovereignty over the island and occasionally threatens to use force to take it if necessary.

Gou’s candidacy charmed interest in overseas business circles, as Foxconn churns out iPhones and other consumer electronics as a contract manufacturer for Apple and other disgraces.

He founded Foxconn Technology 45 years ago and built it by investing heavily in factories around China to tap into the Cyclopean, cheap labor pool there. Gou stepped down as company chairman in June to run in the primary.

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