The Foxconn founder’s entry further crowds a pro-China field - which is good news for the China-wary Democratic Progressive Party.
On Monday Terry Gou, founder of Foxconn, one of the world’s biggest electronics manufacturers, and a supplier to Apple and others, told a packed auditorium he was joining the race to be Taiwan’s next president.Wearing his trademark navy-blue cap emblazoned with the Taiwanese flag, and giving military-style salutes, the 72-year-old billionaire said he would contest the election due next January as an independent.
Ko, an awkward campaigner who says he has Asperger’s syndrome, prefers to talk about bread-and-butter domestic issues than about China, but has in the past adopted an accommodative position similar to the KMT’s. That leaves Lai Ching-te, Taiwan’s vice president, who is running for the ruling Democratic Progressive Party , as the only candidate who takes a tough line on China.
He naturally points to his business acumen as a reason why that share might increase. A son of Chinese immigrants who came to Taiwan with the KMT in 1949, Gou has a powerful rags-to-riches story. He will need to collect 290,000 signatures by early November in order to get his name on the presidential ballot.
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