At a news conference, Gou criticised the governing Democratic Progressive Party, saying its policies have brought Taiwan into the risk of war with China, which claims the self-ruled island democracy as part of its territory.
Interestingly, this will be Foxconn founder's second attempt to lead the opposition Kuomintang (KMT). In 2019, Gou resigned from Foxconn and joined the Kuomintang (KMT) to run for president, declaring he was instructed by the sea goddess Mazu in a dream to contest the election. Notably, Gou is also the main owner of HMD Global, which is a company founded in 2016 to sell Nokia branded phones.
However, Gou now needs to get 2,90,000 signatures from voters by 2 November to make his bid official.
Taiwan's current president—Tsai ING-wen, the first female president of Taiwan, has more anti-China stance contrasts with the KMT, which supports closer ties with mainland China.
The Foxconn founder said that he was running to prevent Taiwan from becoming “the next Ukraine,” promised to bring “50 years of peace to the Taiwan Strait,” and pledged to help the island overtake Singapore in terms of GDP per capita.
In 2019 however Gou had contrast point of view towards China when he told reporters that Apple should move its manufacturing out of China.
Owing to his business background and image as a political outsider, Gou has been compared in international media to former U.S. President Donald Trump.
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