Terry Gou: Foxconn founder in fresh run for Taiwan presidency

Terry Gou, founder of major Apple supplier Foxconn, is seeking the presidential nomination for Taiwan’s main opposition party for a second time.

He is aiming to be nominated by the Kuomintang (KMT), which traditionally favours close ties with China.

In 2019, Mr Gou stepped down as Foxconn’s boss to make a bid for the presidency, but failed to be nominated.

It comes as Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen is on a trip to the US.

“We must honestly tell young people that it is dangerous to vote for the [Democratic Progressive Party], which ‘exalts Taiwan independence and hates and opposes China’,” Mr Gou told reporters at a hotel next to Taiwan’s main international airport on Wednesday.

He added that the only way to avoid war with China was to lessen tensions between Washington and Beijing and get Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) out of office.

Beijing sees Taiwan as a self-ruled breakaway province that will eventually be unified under China’s control. However, Taiwan sees itself as distinct from the Chinese mainland, with its own democratically elected leaders.

On Wednesday, President Tsai is scheduled to meet US House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy in California.

The highly symbolic meeting has already prompted outrage from China. This is the last leg of her trip to Central America with a transit through the US.

Multi-billionaire Mr Gou made his fortune from manufacturing electronic devices for other companies.

Foxconn is widely known for producing many of Apple’s iPhone models.

It was one of the first Taiwanese companies that invested in factories on the mainland, tapping into the much lower wage costs in China.

If successful in his presidential bid, Mr Gou is expected to take a more China-friendly approach than the current administration.

Ms Tsai became Taiwan’s first female president 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.