Foxconn Founder Terry Gou Wants To Become Taiwanese President After Success With IPhone

JAKARTA - After successfully controlling iPhone production, Terry Gou, founder of major supplier company Apple Inc, Foxconn, from Taiwan, now wants to use his entrepreneurial skills to advance in presidential elections in the island nation.

After two previous attempts failed, the 72-year-old Gou sought to unite divided opposition in an escalating situation with China, which he said was caused by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP)'s attitude towards Beijing.

"In the last seven years, the DPP government has not only put Taiwan in danger of war, but has also implemented flawed domestic policies that have failed to overcome the challenges facing the Taiwan industry and people's lives," he said on Monday, August 28, announcing his candidacy for "Taiwan CEO" in the January election.

The DPP-led government has repeatedly offered talks with Beijing, but was rejected, and they blamed China for the tension.

Gou faces the challenge of trying to unite two main opposition parties - Kuomitang (KMT), which he hopes will support as his candidate and the Taiwan People's Party - to work together and "overthrow the DPP", as he said last Monday.

Before he announced his candidacy for independence on Monday, Gou had tried to get a ticket from KMT to become a presidential candidate but failed.

However, the live language, along with its business capabilities, has attracted the attention of people in various pseudo campaign events across Taiwan held by Gou before its announcement.

"He is a political immigrant who speaks honestly," said Sung Wen-Ti, a political scientist at the Australian National University Taiwan Study Program. "He can attract voters who prioritize market beliefs. He can also attract educated people who prefer more technocratic governance."

Gou was not born rich. After graduating from university, he worked in a series of factory works, when Taiwan in the late 1960s and early 1970s began using low-cost labor to produce consumer goods for the rich world in the West.

He founded Hon Hai Precision Industry Co Ltd, better known as Foxconn, in 1974 on a $7,500 loan from his mother and 11 elderly workers. Initially, he produced cheap plastic components for black-and-white television for Chicago TV manufacturers, before making a big deal in 1980 to make a joystick connector for Atari's game console.

In 2000, Foxconn won an order to make an iMac redesigned by Apple, using its experience of creating various components for US personal computer vendors such as Dell.

Gou recalls how he had to be persistent with the late founder of Apple, Steve Jobs, saying he should force Jobs to give him a business card.

"He was very happy when I managed to help him develop his first iPhone. He showed me how to use the touchscreen directly," Gou said in 2011 about his relationship with Jobs.

Foxconn has finally become one of the largest private entrepreneurs in the world with more than one million workers at a time, assembling devices for global brands such as Sony Corp, Nintendo Co Ltd, and Microsoft Corp.

Gou remains a respected figure at Foxconn after stepping down from office in 2019, respected as a "founder", although the company said last Monday that it was no longer involved in day-to-day management after handing over batons" four years ago.

After building the world's largest contract producer from scratch, the Gou relations network reached its highest level with Chinese President Xi Jinping, whom he met in 2014 in Beijing, and which in 2017 he described as a major leader, Taiwanese media reported.

Gou's parents were born in China and were among the generation that fled to Taiwan after the Communists won the Chinese civil war in 1949, a year before Gou was born on the island.

In an interview with People's Daily, the Communist Party's official newspaper, in 2018 to commemorate China's historic 40th anniversary of economic reform, Gou said he was delighted to have witnessed the change.

He talked about how his father came from Shanxi province and his mother from Guangdong, and that his first visit to China in 1987 to track down his family roots was "the first time I set foot in ancestral homeland."

This year, Gou promised to start negotiations with China if he was elected president on the basis that both sides are part of a single China but each can interpret what that means.

"Both sides can sit down together and we can take as much time as we need to talk about 'different interpretations'," he said.

However, on Monday he took a more assertive tone when asked if his Foxconn shareholding meant China could easily give him instructions if he became president.

"I have never been under the control of the People's Republic of China," he said. "I did not follow their instructions."

Gou has high friends including former US President Donald Trump. Gou told Trump he wanted to be the peacemaker between Taiwan, China and the US as president of Taiwan.

"Damai, stability, economy, future, are my core values," he said after announcing his intention to become a KMT candidate in the 2020 election, although he ultimately failed to get the nomination. KMT lost the election with a big difference