Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) founder Terry Gou (郭台銘) last night announced he will not join next year’s presidential election as an independent.
Earlier yesterday, Evelyn Tsai (蔡沁瑜), deputy chief executive of Gou’s Yonglin Foundation, said Gou appears to have reached a final decision on the matter. At the time she said Gou would make an announcement some time today before the Central Election Commission closes at 5:30pm.
Registration for prospective independent presidential candidates began on Friday and is to end today.
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
The tycoon on Thursday last week quit the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), expressing disappointment at the party’s reactionary politics.
In July, Gou lost the KMT’s presidential primary to Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) by 17 percentage points.
Gou already has an idea of who his vice presidential candidate would be if he is to run for president, but he did not reveal any details to aides, Tsai said.
Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) has openly expressed his support for Gou running for president, and the two camps have stayed in touch through effective communication channels, Tsai said.
Taipei City Government adviser Tsai Pi-ju (蔡壁如) joined a meeting with Gou’s team yesterday morning to discuss ways they could collaborate in next year’s presidential and legislative elections, Evelyn Tsai said.
Asked if some of the aides have changed their household registration address to prepare to run for legislators, Evelyn Tsai confirmed that she has changed hers to Taoyuan’s Bade District (八德).
“We are considering all possible options in which we could help make the nation better,” she said.
Kuo Shin-yi (郭昕宜), another aide of Gou’s, confirmed that she has changed her household registration address to Taichung’s North District (北區) for strategic and other reasons.
They will provide more information once it is confirmed, she said.
The Central Election Commission is to announce a list of prospective independent presidential candidates tomorrow.
From tomorrow to Nov. 2, the candidates must launch a signature drive to collect 280,384 valid signatures in support of their bid.
The navy has installed 13 Phalanx Block 1B close-in weapons systems on its warships, increasing their defensive firepower, a defense official said on Saturday. The systems cost the navy NT$10.16 billion (US$314.67 million), while eight additional Block 1A systems are being upgraded in the US and are expected to be delivered next year, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. The Phalanx system used by Taiwan to defend its warships and key radar installations is a radar-cued gun system capable of firing 4,500 rounds a minute at targets as far away as 1.5km, the official said. With their superior range of
RACE FOR CHIPS: The Dresden site would help Europe reduce its reliance on Asia for semiconductors, while Germany aims to produce one-fifth of the world’s chips by 2030 Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday broke ground in Dresden, Germany, on its first European plant as the continent seeks to safeguard its chip supplies amid growing US-China tensions. TSMC chief executive C.C. Wei (魏哲家) attended the event, together with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, and the heads of Infineon Technologies AG, NXP Semiconductors NV and Robert Bosch GmbH, which each hold a 10 percent stake in the venture. TSMC owns a 70 percent stake in the plant. “Together with our partners, Bosch, Infineon and NXP, we are building our Dresden facility to meet the
‘CLOSE TIES’: Former Japanese PM Yoshihiko Noda also attended the annual Ketagalan Forum on Indo-Pacific security and spoke of Taiwan’s importance globally China’s authoritarian expansionism would not stop with Taiwan, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday, calling for solidarity among the world’s democracies to check Beijing’s territorial ambitions. Taiwan is determined to become a decisive force for democracy, peace and prosperity, standing side-by-side with its democratic partners to confront authoritarian expansionism and protect shared values, he told the annual Ketagalan Forum on Indo-Pacific security in Taipei. Authoritarianism is now a global challenge, Lai said, using as examples Chinese military expansionism, economic coercion and the use of hybrid warfare tactics such as cyberattacks and cognitive warfare. “We are all fully aware that China’s growing authoritarianism will
RECOVERY: Overall, average income across all age groups increased, climbing to a record NT$709,000 last year, on the back of an improved economy, the DGBAS said Taiwanese workers under the age of 30 last year, on average, earned an annual income of NT$545,931 (US$17,044), a new high, as the economy continued to improve, data released by the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) showed. That equated to monthly earnings of NT$45,494 per person, and marked an increase from NT$535,667 in 2022, the data showed. In addition to an improved economy, average incomes rose as the unemployment rate declined and the minimum wage rose, the statistics agency said. Overall, average income in Taiwan also hit a new record of NT$709,000 last year, up from NT$704,000 in 2022, the data