We’re now less than a year away from Taiwan’s next presidential election. Different folks—including Foxconn tycoon Terry Guo—are stepping up and expressing interest in the job. Here’s one hot take to get this thread rolling:
After eight years of the timid cat lady guiding Taiwan through the pandemic and making the country cool again we’re left with a sausage fest of old dude candidates…
Adding more detail to this thread: C Donovan Smith has a nice overview of the two main potential KMT candidates for President: New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi and boastful billionaire Terry Guo. Who will the KMT choose as their candidate for 2024?
He employs a million Chinese over there and is the only one who can fly across the median line of Taiwan straits in his private jet
He might be able to calm the waters between CCP and Taiwan but only if he makes the CCP believe Taiwan is not heading in path to staying away from China forever. And only good if he doesn’t sell Taiwan to CCP
If you make a billion or more next task you seek is to be president
Sound familiar?
Thing is will you buy a used car from the guy?
Will you trust him to run Taiwan ?
He might have more influence than a Taipei mayor (seems a source for Taiwan presidents)
Make Taipei city mayor then run for Prez
Kinda like our Gavin
Run for SF mayor run for guv and next run for Prez
To be fair it’s an achievement to be able to employ a million people and most people are happy to have the job it seems .
The ones who committed suicide perhaps had different exact reasons and they may not be related to having a job or even working for Foxconn it may be they saw that their lives were of little to no value and they were in a mc job with no possibility of attaining a better future
Without iPhone factories those people would be working on farmlands in central China getting paid even less.
It’s your call!
PS the device you are typing on was made in a similar “sweatshop” even if not owned by him. They are all the same, whether they are owned by Foxconn or someone else. Foxconn just gets more media attention.
He’s now seeking the nomination for a new job in Taiwan.
Is managing a profitable company with massive amounts of assets in China the same skill set as being President of Taiwan with massive amounts of assets in China?
We know the guy can make phones but will he make a good prez and keep the ship steady with China and not sail the good ship Taiwan into the arms of Momma China
At minimum, Beijing would have enormous leverage over him given where his assets are located. Leaving aside his labour relations record, he’d pretty much be the most compromised candidate imaginable.
At the same time, Guo is still (or at least constantly professes to be) a true believer of the ROC, so the KMT may still view him as “their man” as they did with Han four years ago. We’ll soon see . . .
Then perhaps you can now see that your previous question “would you buy a used car from the guy?” was just as silly as my answer “I am satisfied with his phones”, and irrelevant to his ability to run a country.
In any case, this discussion is moot, because he won’t be the final KMT nominee.
I think you may be correct. But remember: the last two KMT nominees have been Hung Hsiu-chu and Han Kuo-yu. While the nomination process this time is different (Eric Chu said he’s handling it!), the KMT has not hesitated in recent times to put forward extraordinary wildcard candidates for president.
If they want to keep this pattern going, Terry Guo could be their man.