TAIPEI, Taiwan — A populist mayor in Taiwan who favors closer ties with China won the opposition party’s nomination to run against President Tsai Ing-wen, who has been sharply critical of Beijing’s attempts to pressure the island into unification. The nomination of Han Kuo-yu, who survived a challenge from Terry Gou, the founder of the world’s largest iPhone assembler, will offer Taiwan’s voters a stark choice in January’s election between governments leaning toward Washington or Beijing. Ms. Tsai, the incumbent from the Democratic Progressive Party, drew sharp condemnation from China last week when she visited New York and spoke at Columbia University. The speech underlined the warmest ties between Washington and Taipei in two decades. [Han Kuo-yu, the new star of the opposition, has galvanized older Taiwanese.]

Source: New York Times July 15, 2019 04:07 UTC