Terry Gou naive on China
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co founder Terry Gou (郭台銘), who once said that “democracy is not food,” recently announced that he is once again running for the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) presidential nomination.
That Gou is launching his presidential bid for a second time proves that “democracy” is a way of life in Taiwan. If he lived in China, he would have no chance of running for president, because in Beijing, democracy certainly is not food.
Although the tycoon is good at business, some of his comments on national policies are stunning. Confronted by China, which wants to annex Taiwan, Gou shows naivety when expressing his ideas. For example, the best way to prevent war is to be prepared to win, so Taiwan must obtain suitable and sufficient weapons to deter a potential annexation by China.
However, Gou said that if Taiwan buys too many weapons, China would hit the areas where they are stored.
I would like to ask Gou: As a presidential candidate, do you oppose military procurement?
When announcing his presidential bid at a news conference early this month, Gou said that to avoid Taiwanese children living under “a hail of bullets,” nobody should support the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), as it advocates for Taiwan independence.
Obviously, he was not aware of a recent poll in which 54 percent of respondents supported Taiwan independence and only 10 percent supported “unification” with China. Or does he dare not to recall the poll?
The DPP has been in power twice for nearly 16 years. Has it ever let children live under a hail of bullets?
It seems as if Gou implies that Taiwan can only protect itself by surrendering to the Chinese Communist Party. If that is what he means, he has underestimated the ability of the armed forces and the determination of Taiwan’s democratic allies.
Chiu Ping-chin
Taipei
US President Donald Trump has gotten off to a head-spinning start in his foreign policy. He has pressured Denmark to cede Greenland to the United States, threatened to take over the Panama Canal, urged Canada to become the 51st US state, unilaterally renamed the Gulf of Mexico to “the Gulf of America” and announced plans for the United States to annex and administer Gaza. He has imposed and then suspended 25 percent tariffs on Canada and Mexico for their roles in the flow of fentanyl into the United States, while at the same time increasing tariffs on China by 10
US President Donald Trump last week announced plans to impose reciprocal tariffs on eight countries. As Taiwan, a key hub for semiconductor manufacturing, is among them, the policy would significantly affect the country. In response, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) dispatched two officials to the US for negotiations, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC) board of directors convened its first-ever meeting in the US. Those developments highlight how the US’ unstable trade policies are posing a growing threat to Taiwan. Can the US truly gain an advantage in chip manufacturing by reversing trade liberalization? Is it realistic to
Trying to force a partnership between Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) and Intel Corp would be a wildly complex ordeal. Already, the reported request from the Trump administration for TSMC to take a controlling stake in Intel’s US factories is facing valid questions about feasibility from all sides. Washington would likely not support a foreign company operating Intel’s domestic factories, Reuters reported — just look at how that is going over in the steel sector. Meanwhile, many in Taiwan are concerned about the company being forced to transfer its bleeding-edge tech capabilities and give up its strategic advantage. This is especially
Last week, 24 Republican representatives in the US Congress proposed a resolution calling for US President Donald Trump’s administration to abandon the US’ “one China” policy, calling it outdated, counterproductive and not reflective of reality, and to restore official diplomatic relations with Taiwan, enter bilateral free-trade agreement negotiations and support its entry into international organizations. That is an exciting and inspiring development. To help the US government and other nations further understand that Taiwan is not a part of China, that those “one China” policies are contrary to the fact that the two countries across the Taiwan Strait are independent and
RSS