Taiwan’s would-be Tom Cruise seeks ways to win back youth vote on Mission: Impossible presidential campaign trail

Taiwanese ruling party chairman Eric Chu will not know for more than a month the results of his long-shot bid to win the island’s presidency, but he is already discussing how his party can win back the youth vote after the election.

“We should do some reforms,” Chu said on Friday in an interview at the Kuomintang’s (KMT) headquarters. “We should change our policy and try to get closer to the younger generation, to the people. And do a lot of changes to make our policy more attractive.”

Read more: KMT’s Eric Chu names former labour minister as running mate in Taiwan’s presidential election

Chu, 54, trails Tsai Ing-wen, leader of the opposition Democratic Progressive Party in the January 16 race, with the rival part on course to win both the presidency and a legislative majority for the first time.

Chu acknowledges he faces long odds and joked that people were not convinced by his efforts to compare himself to Tom Cruise in a Mission: Impossible film.

“I say OK, maybe not Mission: Impossible because the DPP says you are not so handsome as Tom Cruise,“ Chu said. ”I say how about change to Tom Hanks, Forrest Gump. Just run, no matter what the results. Just run.”

The KMT is struggling to overcome scandals, economic stagnation and wariness about incumbent President Ma Ying-jeou’s push to expand trade ties with mainland China – a policy many young Taiwanese feel has favoured the business elite. 

Students opposed to a services trade pact brokered by Ma’s government with the mainland’s Communist Party occupied Taiwan’s legislative chamber for weeks last year in what became known as the sunflower movement.

Ma was later forced to hand the KMT leadership to Chu, the mayor of New Taipei, Taiwan’s most populous city, after suffering a record defeat in local elections held nationwide.