Terry Gou, the founder of Foxconn, one of Apple’s largest suppliers, is seeking the presidential nomination for Taiwan’s main opposition party, the Kuomintang (KMT), for a second time. The KMT traditionally favours close ties with China, and Gou, who stepped down as Foxconn’s boss in 2019 to make a failed bid for the presidency, is hoping to secure the nomination this time around.
Speaking to reporters at a hotel near Taiwan’s main international airport, Gou warned young people that voting for Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), which he claims “exalts Taiwan independence and hates and opposes China,” could lead to war with China. He argued that the only way to avoid conflict was to lessen tensions between Washington and Beijing and get the DPP out of office.
China sees Taiwan as a self-ruled breakaway province that will eventually be unified under China’s control, while Taiwan sees itself as distinct from the Chinese mainland, with its own democratically elected leaders. The highly symbolic meeting between Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen and US House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy in California has already provoked anger from China.
If Gou is successful in his presidential bid, he is expected to take a more China-friendly approach than the current administration. Gou made his fortune manufacturing electronic devices for other companies, and Foxconn is widely known for producing many of Apple’s iPhone models. It was one of the first Taiwanese companies to invest in factories on the mainland, tapping into the much lower wage costs in China.
Taiwan’s first female president, Tsai, was elected in 2016 as the head of the traditionally pro-independence DPP. The DPP has already chosen party chairman and Taiwan’s vice president, William Lai, as its candidate for next year’s presidential election. The KMT has governed Taiwan for most of the years since 1949, when the party fled the mainland after being defeated in the Chinese civil war.
