Terry Gou (郭台銘), the billionaire founder of major Apple Inc supplier Hon Hai Precision Industry Co, has no plan for now to visit China, he said yesterday, as he seeks the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) presidential nomination.
“I don’t have this plan for the time being,” Gou, 72, told a news conference in Taipei, when asked whether he would follow former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) in visiting China.
“But, anything beneficial for the Republic of China [ROC], anything beneficial for cross-strait peace, anything beneficial for trade and economic exchanges across the [Taiwan] Strait, I will do what I can to promote it and implement it,” he said.
Photo: Ann Wang, Reuters
Gou, who stepped down as head of Hon Hai in 2019, officially announced his plan to seek the KMT nomination for next year’s presidential election on April 5 upon his return to Taiwan from a 10-day visit to the US. He then embarked on a visit to Japan on Tuesday last week.
Gou, who left the KMT in 2019 after losing its presidential primary, has expressed his intention to rejoin the party, but it has not yet presented a plan for him to do so.
The KMT last month announced that it would select its presidential candidate through a consensus meeting by a special committee to avoid internal strife.
KMT Secretary-General Justin Huang (黃健庭) previously said the party’s position was clear.
“That is, we are backing New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜),” Huang said, but later changed his tune, saying the candidate has not yet been picked.
Gou yesterday said he believes the KMT will field the strongest candidate with the highest public opinion ratings.
He also asked the public to give him 30 days to present his campaign platform.
He said that over the past two years, there have been two questions on his mind: the future of Taiwan and what kind of leader the ROC needs.
He is now certain he can fully tackle the two tasks and is prepared to take on the responsibility, he said.
Gou said he is confident he can provide Taiwan a values-based leadership that would help the country blaze its own trail and avoid choosing sides between the US and China.
He also said he would work to safeguard Taiwan’s dignity based on a solid economic foundation and build the country into a technology nation.
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