TAIPEI • Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu has enjoyed a stunning rise in the last two years, journeying from relative obscurity to become the opposition Kuomintang’s (KMT) presidential candidate in a phenomenon that has been dubbed the “Han tide”.

Some have likened the 62-year-old – who won 44.8 per cent of the votes cast in the KMT’s primary – to US President Donald Trump and other populist leaders who hail from outside establishment circles and command a fervent voter base buoyed by lofty promises of resurrecting their fortunes.

Mr Han was a relative unknown until he seized the Kaohsiung mayoralty in local elections last year. It was a shock win in the southern city that had long been a heartland for President Tsai Ing-wen’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party.

He has been able to muster huge, enthusiastic crowds during campaigning, where he has vowed to restore warm ties with Beijing and kick-start the island’s economy.

Taipei’s relations with Beijing have soured since Ms Tsai came to power in 2016 because her party refuses to recognise the idea that Taiwan is part of “one China”.

Taiwan has been a de facto sovereign nation since the end of a civil war in 1949, but China still views it as its territory and has vowed to seize it, by force if necessary.

Supporters see Mr Han as a plain-speaking maverick, but detractors are unnerved by his efforts in promoting warmer China ties.

He has shown a knack for using criticism to his advantage. When a spokesman for Ms Tsai dismissed Mr Han as something of a country bumpkin by calling him an “earthen steamed bun”, he responded by presiding over a steamed bun cooking competition.

44.8%

The percentage of votes that Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu won in the Kuomintang’s primary.

He has also embraced nicknames such as “bald guy” and “vegetable man”, the latter a reference to a previous job as general manager of the Taipei Agricultural Products Marketing Corporation.

“The Han wave is real, but it remains to be seen whether it has peaked already,” said Dr Shelley Rigger, a political science professor at Davidson College and author of Why Taiwan Matters: Small Island, Global Powerhouse.

“The big question for voters is likely to be, can he pull off an improvement in cross-strait relations without giving away too much?”

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, BLOOMBERG

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