Global Courant 2023-05-07 21:18:24
KAOHSIUNGTaiwan – The billionaire founder of Foxconn vowed at a rally on Sunday that if he is elected president of Taiwan, he will be able to “keep the peace” between the democratically self-governing island and China.
Taiwan will elect its next leader in January 2024 to succeed President Tsai Ing-wen, whose two terms in office have been marked by unprecedented tensions with Beijing, which sees the island as part of its territory to be reclaimed.
Terry Gou – the founder of Foxconn, a major supplier of Apple’s iPhones – had announced in April that he intended to seek the presidential nomination from Taiwan’s China-friendly opposition Kuomintang party.
At his first-ever rally, in Taiwan’s southern city of Kaohsiung — traditionally a stronghold of Tsai’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) — Gou urged his supporters to “let me keep the peace.”
“For the past two years I have seen a government that cannot see the suffering of the people,” the 72-year-old said in a speech to a sea of more than 10,000 supporters.
“What are people most concerned about right now? They are most concerned that war could break out at any moment.”
Gou – who donned a cap with the Taiwanese flag – said he “can do better than Tsai Ing-wen or William Lai”, the current Taiwanese vice president who has been nominated as the DPP’s candidate.
“Let me strive for peace on behalf of all. Let me keep the peace,” he said.
This wouldn’t be Gou’s first bid for political leadership — he attempted a run in 2019 before the previous election, but lost to populist outsider Han Kuo-yu for the KMT’s nomination.
Gou’s homemade story is legendary in Taiwan, mimicking the island’s phenomenal economic success.
But the massive factories built in China under Gou have wrong-footed critics for his perceived sociability with Beijing’s leadership.
The KMT tends to advocate warmer ties with China, while relations with Beijing have deteriorated sharply under Tsai’s leadership.
Democratic Taiwan lives under a constant threat of invasion by China, which sees the island as part of its territory that will one day be reclaimed – by force if necessary.
China has ramped up its saber-rattling in recent years, sending fighter jets into Taiwan’s air defense identification zone on an almost daily basis.
Last month, it conducted its latest war games around the island in response to a meeting between Tsai and US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in California. AFP
