Terry Gou says he is withdrawing “his body, but not his spirit” from the dispute; he had announced his candidacy in August
Businessman Terry Gou announced this Friday (24.Nov.2023) his withdrawal from the presidential race in Taiwan. The founder of Foxconna major supplier of Apple, had announced his independent candidacy in August. Last week, he obtained authorization from the electoral commission to compete in the 2024 elections. The information is from Reuters.
The businessman had said, in a speech when announcing his candidacy, that he wanted to prevent Taiwan from becoming “the next Ukraine”. In the note in which he announced his withdrawal, he stated that he was “removing your body but not your spirit” of the campaign.
Gou did not say who he would support in the presidential election: Hou Yu-ih, from Taiwan’s largest opposition party and Chinese ally, the KMT (Kuomintang), or Ko Wen-je, of the TTP (acronym in English for Taiwan People’s Party). The businessman unsuccessfully tried to get the parties to unite to try to beat the DDP (acronym in English for Democratic Progressive Party), of the island’s current president, Tsai Ing-Wen.
In 2019, the year he left the leadership of Foxconn, Gou launched himself as a candidate, but was unable to join the KMT. At the beginning of the year, he tried again to enter the race, but the party chose Hou Yu-ih as its candidate. Gou changed his strategy and started holding rallies across Taiwan, reinforcing rumors that he would run independently. On August 28, he said he would be in the election race.
At the time, he declared that the DDP led Taiwan “to the danger of war” because of their “policies full of errors”. The party considers the island to be an independent nation, contrary to what is defended by China. For Beijing, Taiwan is part of its territory, in the form of a breakaway province.
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