Taiwan’s KMT presidential prospect pledges closer ties with Beijing
- Eric Chu says incumbent Tsai Ing-wen’s pugnacious approach to mainland has failed
- Polls suggest many figures popular with voters are yet to declare a run
Taiwan presidential candidate Eric Chu pledged to improve ties with mainland China, casting any rematch against incumbent Tsai Ing-wen as a chance to reset ties with Beijing.
Chu, who lost to Tsai in the 2016 election, accused the president of stoking tension with the mainland at the expense of economic growth. The former New Taipei city mayor said he would work to extend communication with the Communist Party in Beijing without compromising Taiwan’s commitment to democracy.
“We will achieve economic prosperity for the whole Chinese nation through cooperation between the two sides across the Taiwan Strait,” he said.
Chu was the first member of the opposition Kuomintang to announce a run for the presidency after Tsai’s Democratic Progressive Party suffered a resounding defeat in local elections in November. While Chu lost by 25 percentage points three years ago, opinion polls show him now leading by double-digit margins in a possible head-to-head race next year.
However, surveys indicated both Chu and Tsai trail independent Taipei City mayor Ko Wen-je and his Kaohsiung City KMT counterpart Han Kuo-yu in terms of popularity, although neither has declared a run for the presidency.