Making history in Taiwan: Recalling a mayor of special municipality

Say Goodbye to Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu!

Let me introduce you to the ‘less successful’ Trump-style Taiwanese politician: Mr. Han Kuo-yu.

Well, I did feel kind of guilty giving him this title, but it suits him quite well.

Kaohsiung, the third largest city in Taiwan, has just made history. Currently, Kaohsiung people are one step away from ‘firing’ their mayor elected in 2018. Less than a year starting from his term of office, Mr. Han started avoiding the city council’s questioning, and soon left Kaohsiung to run for 2020 presidential campaign, which, of course, ended in disaster.

During the campaign (which was only few months ago), Han quickly revealed himself as an anti-intellectual and unreliable politician. He was evasive toward controversial issues such as Hong Kong’s protests and Taiwan’s same-sex marriage. He made discriminating remarks toward women and migrant workers in public — not to mention that in 2018 he had just made ridiculous promises to Kaohsiung people such as bringing Disneyland to Kaohsiung and drilling oil offshore.

Another noteworthy controversy lies in Han’s relationship with China (CCP). Not only did Han refused to talk about Hong Kong’s protests (profusely covered in Taiwan’s media), he was also accused of accepting CCP’s financial support to buy votes for his campaign.

Han took 3 months off to run for presidential campaign. On contrary to his victory in 2018, he fell — and he fell hard this time.

An advertisement reminding voters the recall of Mr. Han

Activists in Kaohsiung launched a petition drive. They soon collected piles of valid endorsements — far above the legal minimum threshold for the recall.

The recall election will be held on June 6th, coincidentally on a Saturday (666 is such a memorable slogan!).

In the history of Taiwan, this is the highest official ever targeted with a recall vote.

After two weeks, Taiwanese people are going to witness a historical moment. Whether Han is eventually recalled or not, he has left himself a page in Taiwan’s history: the recall of an untrustworthy mayor.