2020 Elections: Han traveled with woman he bought house for: report

By Ann Maxon / Staff reporter





Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) has traveled abroad with a woman surnamed Wang (王) several times, with the two staying at the same hotel at least once, Chinese-language Next Magazine reported yesterday.

The two have traveled at least five times to China and other countries, sometimes with Han’s friend Chao Tung-chou (趙東洲), the magazine said, citing an anonymous source.

Wang, who is rumored to be Han’s mistress, last month told the magazine that the mayor, the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) candidate in the presidential election on Saturday next week, provided NT$6 million (US$199,296) for her apartment in New Taipei City’s Sinjhuang District (新莊), but denied that they were having an extramarital affair.

Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu, the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) presidential candidate, yesterday talks to reporters in Kaohsiung. Photo: Hsu Li-chuen, Taipei Times

Han sometimes spends the night at her apartment because he is tired from playing mahjong with her and friends, she said.

Asked about the report, Han’s campaign office spokeswoman Anne Wang (王淺秋) yesterday said that it was “pure fiction.”

Han did travel with the woman to China on a business trip to explore an investment opportunity, but there were other people in the group, Anne Wang told reporters at KMT headquarters in Taipei.

The two have joint investments, as the campaign office explained after a previous report about Han giving the woman NT$6 million to purchase the apartment, she said.

Their trips were not secret and there is no need to speculate if more happened, she added.

Asked if the two shared a room on their business trips, Anne Wang said that the magazine “did not say they did.”

Asked how many times the two have traveled abroad, she said that the campaign office would not “play along” with media outlets’ mudslinging against Han.

Han in June last year filed charges against My-Formosa.com president Wu Tsu-chia (吳子嘉) for falsely accusing him of adultery, meaning the prosecutor considered the allegation as defamation, Anne Wang said.

Asked when Han’s wife, Lee Chia-fen (李佳芬), who has not been seen with him since the report about the apartment, would rejoin him on the campaign trail, Han yesterday told reporters in Tainan that Lee is fighting jet lag and would make public appearances after recovering.

Asked about his trips with the woman, Han left without answering.