On Feb. 1, 2024, Taiwan’s newly inaugurated parliament, the Legislative Yuan, elected the China-friendly Kuomintang (KMT) lawmaker Han Kuo-yu as the President of the unicameral legislative branch. However, his controversial past as a politician and his ties to China have raised widespread concern in Taiwan’s political arena.
He was elected when no candidate won an absolute majority, receiving 54 votes out of 105 present lawmakers, while 8 members of the Taiwan People’s Party abstained from the session. The opposition party KMT’s Han Kuo-yu and Johnny Chiang were elected the President and Vice-President of the Legislative Yuan, which has been controlled by the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) for the past eight years. Notably, the newly elected Taiwanese President is still a member of the DPP, which means that the executive and legislative branches are controlled by different parties.
Mr. Han served as a lawmaker two decades ago, during which he faced public criticism regarding his lifestyle of partying, raising questions about how seriously he took his job. He subsequently left politics but made a comeback in 2018 when he was elected the mayor of Kaohsiung, Taiwan’s third most populous city. He then ran for the Taiwanese presidency in 2020 and lost to rival presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen of the DPP.
After his electoral loss in 2020, Mr. Han’s growing unpopularity—mainly due to abandoning his mayoral post to pursue the presidency—led to an unprecedented recall vote, which ousted him as the mayor of Kaohsiung.
However, in the 2024 legislative election, which took place concurrently with Taiwan’s presidential election, Mr. Han was ranked first on the KMT’s proportional representation party list, which essentially guaranteed him a seat in the Legislative Yuan. Party-list lawmakers cannot be recalled, which led to scrutiny given Mr. Han’s controversial public image and political career.
‘Red Flags’: Controversial Ties to China
In a campaign speech, Mr. Han admitted: “I was elected as a lawmaker at the age of 35, and I was very motivated at first, but later on, I drank, stayed up late, and played cards, gradually abandoning the trust of the voters. At the age of 44, when I felt detached from the people, I left the Legislative Yuan. This time on my return to the Legislative Yuan, I will definitely keep the people of Taiwan in my heart.”After he became the mayor of Kaohsiung in 2018, Mr. Han visited mainland China, Hong Kong, and Macau, revealing later that he had met with the directors of the the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) Hong Kong and Macau liaison offices. The purpose of the trip was originally framed as merely promoting economic ties and nothing political.
Mr. Han’s secret meetings were later condemned by Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen and Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council, stating that the liaison offices are important institutions for implementing the CCP’s “one country, two systems” in Hong Kong and Macau.
At the time, Hong Kong’s Legislative Council members in the pro-democracy camp—Eddie Chu, Au Nok-hin, and Leung Yiu-chung—jointly issued a statement saying that Mr. Han’s unorthodox trip was obviously arranged by Beijing.
Another one of the major “red flags” was his omitting from his personal information disclosure when he ran for president a nine-year period during which he lived and studied in mainland China.
In 2001, Mr. Han went to Beijing to apply for a PhD program in political science and public administration at Peking University’s School of Government. He enrolled in 2002.
He claimed during his presidential campaign that he was “smeared” on the Internet for his past studies in China and said that he had “studied at Peking University for a period of time but was not awarded a degree.”
However, his claim was soon debunked by a published list of doctoral graduates from Peking University in 2009, where Mr. Han’s name appeared under a list of graduates from the School of Government.
Taiwanese media followed up with allegations that he had attended the doctoral program in 2001 and was cultivated by the CCP to be a “representative” from Taiwan. Although the allegations cannot be proven, Mr. Han’s nine years in China remain a mystery. His exact whereabouts and deeds were largely unaccounted for.
Taiwanese author and scholar Chen Chien-Chih pointed out in 2020 that a presidential candidate’s educational background should be in his personal information disclosure and that Mr. Han’s concealment constitutes blatant dishonesty.
“No one in the world can compare to the CCP when it comes to infiltration and brainwashing tactics,” said Mr. Chen. “Nine years was not a short period. Mr. Han’s rhetoric in the past two years emulating class struggle in Taiwan may have been influenced by his time in China.”
Just a few days before the 2024 legislative elections in Taiwan, the CCP’s mouthpiece China Central Television stated that Mr. Han firmly supports the “1992 Consensus” between the CCP and KMT and is definitely “not pro-America and anti-China,” calling on the Taiwanese opposition parties to make the “correct choice” between “right and wrong.”
Return to Politics
Mr. Han was once elected mayor of Kaohsiung with large margins six years ago but was ousted in the first successful recall vote in Taiwan’s history after his failed presidential campaign. Now, as the new President of the Legislative Yuan, he is attempting to change his public image.He has abandoned his previously fierce temperament and presented himself as a gentle and professional statesman. During recent parliamentary inquiries, he reminded lawmakers from his own party to respect other members and has portrayed a non-partisan style at times.
On the other side of the Taiwan Strait, the spokesperson for the CCP’s Taiwan Affairs Office in early February urged the two opposing parties in Taiwan to exercise “effective supervision and strong checks and balances” on the ruling pro-independence DPP.
Many in Taiwan view Mr. Han assuming the role of the President of the Legislative Yuan as a win for Beijing. Given his past ties with China, many see him as an important target for the CCP’s infiltration efforts.
