Han Kuo-yu attends a campaign rally for the local elections, in Taoyuan on November 12, 2018. Photo: VCG

Terry Gou is unlikely to split the Chinese Kuomintang (KMT) party and will probably support Han Kuo-yu who just won the KMT party primary poll to run in the 2020 Taiwan regional leadership election, a Chinese mainland expert said on Monday.

The KMT announced Monday that Han, mayor of Kaohsiung in the southwestern Taiwan region, had won the KMT primary poll and would represent the KMT in the 2020 Taiwan regional leadership election.

Han won with an average support rate of 47 percent, defeating his challenger Gou, founder of Foxconn Technology Group, by nearly 20 percent in the party's primary, said udn.com.

"Unlike the strong anti-mainland stance of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), Han gained a lot of hardcore supporters because of his relatively pragmatic cross-Straits policy and effective improvement of people's livelihood on the island," said Yang Danzhi, an expert on Asia-Pacific strategy at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing.

"The Chinese mainland, however, must have a clear understanding of the two-faced behavior of politicians in Taiwan, and treat them calmly and in a smart way."

Han previously rejected the "one country, two systems" proposal in June and said Taiwan would only accept it "over my dead body."

Han will compete with the island's current elected leader Tsai Ing-wen, to run in the 2020 Taiwan regional leadership election.

Gou later issued a concession statement, saying that he congratulated Han on winning the primary poll and blessed him, but he did not mention what his next step would be.

"It is unlikely that Gou will quit the KMT and compete as an independent candidate for next year's leadership election," Yang said.

"He joined the election at a pretty late time and it seems that he was just trying to test the water of public opinion of Taiwan. Gou probably will stand up for Han as his next step," Yang said.

Gou announced April 17 that he would run in the 2020 Taiwan regional leadership election. 

Enthusiasm for Gou was interpreted by Chinese mainland analysts as evidence that the people in the island want a respite from the worsening cross-Straits situation caused by the pro-secession DPP which currently governs the island.