Taiwan’s “Legislative President” Han Kuo-yu (Photo source: Taiwan’s “China Times News Network”)
China Taiwan Network reported on March 22 that the new session of Taiwan’s legislative body opened for the first time on February 20, and it has been a full month so far. Under the high-pressure situation of the Democratic Progressive Party's "black Korea" and "attack on Korea", Taiwan's new "legislative president" Han Kuo-yu's words and deeds have attracted great attention from the outside world. Multiple recent polls show that Han Kuo-yu's performance has been recognized by the outside world, and even young people have a better impression of him.
Comprehensive Taiwan media reports, according to the latest report of the "Taiwan Issues Research Center" (tpoc), among the 113 "legislators", the top three in terms of total voice volume are Han Kuo-yu (461,000) and People's Party "legislator" Huang Guochang ( 238,000), and Chinese Kuomintang "legislator" Xu Qiaoxin (187,000). Hanguo Yu's voice far exceeded that of others and won the championship. In terms of online favorability, Luo Zhiqiang, a "legislator" of the Chinese Kuomintang, won the championship with 0.61, followed by Han Kuo-yu with 0.6. The favorability score far exceeded the median value of the top 10.
Taiwan's "Mirror News" announced the results of the 14th wave of the March 2024 political and economic poll on the 20th. Regarding Hanguo-yu's performance, 40.1% were satisfied and 38.7% were dissatisfied. Satisfaction exceeded dissatisfaction.
A poll released by the "Taiwan Public Opinion Foundation" on the 19th showed that 52% of Taiwanese people were satisfied with Han Kuo-yu's performance, and 34% were dissatisfied. What is surprising is that 58% of young people aged 20 to 24 are satisfied, and even 35% of DPP supporters are satisfied.
In the past, many people on the island were biased against Guo Yu because of the green camp’s influence. What happened this month that changed people’s impression of Han Kuo-yu?
People's Party "legislator" Zhang Qikai believes that after taking office, Hanguo-yu relied on two things to change his image, including removing the director of general affairs and changing the bad habit of "legislators" not being punctual in meetings.
Taiwan's "legislator" office has previously been exposed to controversy such as the excessive decoration cost. In this regard, Zhang Qikai pointed out that Hanguo Yu did not deal with it immediately after discovering something was wrong. Instead, he first asked officials to "tighten the screws" during the New Year group visit. Finally, I unplugged the Director of General Affairs and asked everyone to applaud Han.
Since Han Guo-yu took office in early February, the Democratic Progressive Party has tried its best to "Kahan". Han Guoyu presided over the "Legislative Yuan Meeting" a few days ago. Because many "legislators" who registered to ask questions did not show up for three roll calls, he announced the end of the meeting early, resulting in Taiwan's "Legislative Yuan Meeting" "opening the skylight" for the first time. The "Green Committee" criticized the confiscation of the right to question and launched a series of attacks and defenses. However, due to the clear rules of procedure, Han Kuo-yu's approach was supported by the Blue and White "legislators". The "Green Committee" did not review its erroneous practices, which instead triggered a continuous stream of criticism from online public opinion.
Zhang Qikai mentioned that in the past, the "Legislative Yuan" paid more attention to human relations. If the "legislators" had not arrived, they would take a break. The heads of various departments would sit in their seats and wait, which made many "legislators" develop the habit of not being punctual. Bad habit, but Han Guoyu set the time very clearly. He emphasized that Hanguo Yu had corrected the long-standing shortcomings and let all walks of life see that Han was very serious about his work.
In addition, Green Camp often attacked Hanguo-yu for things like "sleeping until noon", drinking, and being late. In the month since he took office, Hanguo-yu's high demands on life discipline are also considered to be one of the reasons for his smooth "breakthrough."
On the 21st, Zhou Wanlai, secretary-general of Taiwan’s Legislative Yuan, revealed his experience following Han Kuo-yu for more than a month. He said that after being with Han for more than a month, he felt that he was not like what the outside world thought, but that he was very conservative. When people talked about drinking, he didn't even drink. He was very punctual and actively played the role of "legislator". From the perspective of the chief of staff in terms of the speaker's role, I have admired him very much for more than a month.
Hong Xiuzhu, former chairman of the Chinese Kuomintang, believes that the DPP’s suppression of Han Kuo-yu is actually flattering him and creating opportunities for him to become more vocal, which in turn highlights his shortcomings.
In response to the recent increase in Han Guoyu’s satisfaction among young people in their 20s, Taipei City Councilor Liu Caiwei of the Chinese Kuomintang said it was “not surprising at all.” She analyzed that after these young people came into contact with public affairs, they re-recognized Han's image of being upright and reforming by watching Han Han's performance and reforms in Taiwan's legislative body.
Taiwan's "China Times News Network" recently launched a street interview to understand college students' views on Han Kuo-yu. Many young people believe that he is "quite suitable for the role of 'dean', and his favorability has improved" and "a very honest person." I like it very much, it’s good to be able to follow the rules of procedure recently.”
Regarding the improvement in young people’s impression of Han Kuo-yu, You Yinglong, chairman of the Taiwan Public Opinion Foundation, believes that this is a surprising change.
"Kuo-yu, who has regained a strategic position, seems to have evolved to version 2.0." Niu Zexun, a full-time professor and director of the Department of Advertising at the Chinese Culture University in Taiwan, commented on Hanguo-yu after analyzing recent poll data.
Niu Zexun wrote an article in Taiwan's "China Times" and analyzed that before Han Guoyu ran for the "Legislative Yuan", it was an excellent starting point to choose Jiang Qichen, a representative of the Zhongzhuang faction, as the deputy "President". Han Jiang's tacit understanding and discussion of "coming in and coming out together" not only demonstrated Han You's intention to succeed the Chinese Kuomintang from generation to generation, but also unified the "Legislative Yuan" party group and controlled the noise.
The article said that after being elected as the "dean", Hanguo Yu invited Zhou Wanlai, who was familiar with the rules of procedure, to serve as the secretary-general, which was considered by the outside world to be a good starting point. In addition, he actively rectified the personnel and old habits of the "Legislative Yuan" and loaned Taichung Mayor Lu Xiuyan the position of director of the General Affairs Department of the "Legislative Yuan". We can also see the trend of a "quasi-alliance" between South Korea and Lu.
Niu Zexun pointed out that all of this highlights Hanguo-yu's desire to tear off the label attached to the DPP and show his ambition for the future political market. This is indeed refreshing to the outside world and has been upgraded to version 2.0. (Text/Li Ning)
[Editor: Li Ning]
