Terry Gou, founder of the Taiwanese company Foxconn, which assembles telephones for Apple in China, was the fourth candidate for the presidential election in Taiwan on Monday. He is running as an independent candidate. “For the past seven years, the situation in Taiwan has remained grim and its economy, defense and diplomacy have all but reached the brink of collapse. […] That’s why we need the [regerende] Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) from the throne,” he said in the speech announcing his candidacy.
The elections are scheduled for January 13, 2024. They will mainly revolve around Taiwan’s attitude towards mainland China.
Roughly speaking, two groups oppose each other. On the one hand, the DPP, which has been in power since 2016, takes the position that Taiwan is an independent country that wants to be on an equal footing with Beijing.
This is unpalatable to Beijing: in the eyes of the Communist Party of China, Taiwan is a province of China that must sooner or later, without or with the use of violence, rejoin mainland China. Beijing accuses the DPP of separatism and therefore does not want to talk to the current government.
Encirclement
China is sending more and more planes and ships to the Taiwan Strait to increase pressure on Taiwan. For example, China recently practiced what appeared to be an encirclement of Taiwan. in response to the visit of Vice President William Lai Ching-te, also the presidential candidate on behalf of the DPP, to the United States.
Beijing hates Lai even more than President Tsai Ing-wen. That’s because Lai seemed to push for independence more explicitly than fellow party member Tsai ever did. Lately, however, he has been doing everything he can to appear more moderate. That does not convince Beijing. A spokesman for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs calls him an “unadulterated nuisance” who, in practice, is mainly committed to independence.
Opposing the DPP are the so-called blues: parties and people who believe that the People’s Republic of China and Taiwan are in principle part of one China, although they are not in favor of Taiwan actually joining the People’s Republic. China wants to talk to the blues. This group includes the Kuomintang (KMT), the nationalist party that long ruled Taiwan; the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP); as well as independent candidate Terry Gou.
Billionaire
Gou has previously tried to run for president on behalf of the KMT, but failed. He then declared that he would support whatever candidate the KMT chose. But after he was not elected, he continued to campaign for himself. Now the billionaire has decided to run as an independent candidate.
That is probably not good for the blue camp: it means that voters of the three different blue candidates will probably vote very fragmented, so that no blue candidate will easily win against Lai.
The elections will mainly be about whether it is wise to further alienate Beijing from Taipei. Doesn’t that just provoke the violent conquest of Taiwan? Or should Taiwan not give in to unreasonable pressure from Beijing and defend its own democratic course at all costs? The latter is the view of the DPP. The Blues are also seeking closer economic ties with China, where the DPP sees greater diversification in the region and more trading partners outside China.
According to a poll last week, Vice President Lai (DPP) has the support of 43 percent of voters, against 27 percent for Ko Wen-je, former mayor of Taipei and leader of the TPP, and 14 percent for Hou Yu-ih of the KMT. More than 16 percent did not yet know or did not want to answer. Gou had not yet applied for office at that time.