Foxconn Technology Group founder Terry Gou called for Taiwan and China to resume direct talks, while also criticising the ruling Democratic Progressive Party for causing tensions with Beijing.
Writing in an opinion piece in the Washington Post on Monday, Gou said he had “long advocated the immediate resumption of direct cross-strait negotiations between Taiwan and China as the only way to truly ease tensions and to preserve Taiwan’s democracy, freedom and rule of law”.
He said the two sides should work together under the one-China framework, a reference to the belief among Taiwan’s opposition that China and Taiwan have agreed that they are one nation but that they have different interpretation of what that country is.
Gou added the government of President Tsai Ing-wen and others in her party “have greatly aggravated the threat of war, isolated Taiwan internationally, damaged our economy, scared away investors and made Taiwan less secure”.
Gou has been the subject of speculation that he may run as an independent in the presidential election in January next year, especially after the opposition Kuomintang nominated New Taipei City Mayor Hou Yu-ih as its candidate.
He made an unsuccessful bid for Taiwan’s top job in 2019. The 72-year-old, whose company assembles the bulk of Apple’s iPhones in China, travelled to the US earlier this year in an apparent effort to rev up his bid to become president.
Chinese leader Xi Jinping has refused to deal with Tsai because she rejects the view held by Beijing that there’s just one China. Beijing has pledged to bring Taiwan under its control someday, by force if necessary.
One China
The Kuomintang, which lost a civil war to China’s now-ruling Communist Party before fleeing to Taiwan in the late 1940s and 1950s, also accepts the notion there’s one China.
Lai Ching-te, the vice president who is leading the race to succeed Tsai as president, has described himself as a “political worker for Taiwanese independence”, though he’s largely avoided making similar comments on the campaign trail.
He has also said Taiwan is already a de facto sovereign nation and therefore does not need to declare independence. — Cindy Wang, with Debby Wu, (c) 2023 Bloomberg LP