Stan Shih (施振榮), founder of the nation's largest computer company, has offered to resign as presidential adviser, the second tycoon to recently quit the honorary post to avoid being labeled pro-independence by China.
Shih, the founder and former chairman of Acer Group, told reporters late Thursday that he wanted to give up the honorary post to underscore his neutrality in politics, noting that other presidential advisers mainly back President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).
Chen Wen-tsung (陳文宗), director-general of the Department of Public Affairs under the Presidential Office, said yesterday that the office only learned of Shih's remarks from the newspaper yesterday and that Shih had not in person expressed such a view directly to the Presidential Office.
Chen Wen-tsung did not say if the offer would be accepted but stressed that -- judging from the current list of senior presidential advisors -- there is no such thing as exclusion of "non-pan-green figures" from the posts.
Shih's announcement is likely to cause some embarrassment to Chen's administration. Several prominent Taiwanese businessmen have recently distanced themselves from the government which Beijing accuses of seeking permanent independence.
Beijing deeply distrusts Chen, but despite the political tensions Taiwan maintains vital trade and investment links with China.
Taiwanese computer makers are the biggest in the world, but more than two-thirds of their output comes from their factories in China where labor and production costs are much lower.
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