Hon Hai Precision Industry Co chairman Terry Gou (郭台銘) on Thursday urged Beijing to recognize the existence of the Republic of China (ROC) and give it greater international space.
“We 100% agree that Taiwan is an inseparable part of China, but this refers to the Chinese nation,” Gou told reporters on board his flight to Wisconsin from Washington, where he met US President Donald Trump at the White House a day earlier.
However, Gou called on Beijing not to squeeze Taiwan on the world stage and allow it to take part in international activities, warning that a continued hard line would have consequences.
Photo: CNA
“Without international space, Taiwan’s leaders won’t be able to make overseas visits, which will ultimately result in destabilizing the foundation for peace between the two sides,” he said.
Gou last month declared his intention to run in the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential primary.
Should he win the party’s nomination, he would challenge the candidate to be fielded by the Democratic Progressive Party in the presidential election in January next year.
Gou was later greeted by Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers at Mitchell International Airport in Milwaukee, not far from where Hon Hai, known internationally as Foxconn Technology Group, has committed to invest US$10 billion to build a flat-panel display factory.
The Hon Hai chairman has promised to create 13,000 job opportunities with the project in Wisconsin in exchange for up to US$4 billion of state incentives.
Hon Hai reached the deal with former Wisconsin governor Scott Walker and Evers has been critical of the project and expressed his skepticism that the company would meet its commitments.
Evers said two weeks ago that the idea that the company would create 13,000 jobs was “difficult to imagine” and an “unrealistic expectation.”
However, after Gou and Evers met for the first time at the airport, the governor backtracked from his previous view.
“The fact that I said that they may not have 13,000 [jobs], it could be less, it could be more, to me it doesn’t matter,” Evers was quoted as saying by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “I’m not doubting their word, I’m just saying that we want as much clarity as we can going forward, and we talked about what they’re doing right now as far as building.”
Evers said he was “never not supportive” of the deal, despite calling it “lousy” during his campaign for governor and a “horrible deal” in November 2017.
In Washington, White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders confirmed that Gou met with the US president on Wednesday.
“Mr Gou is spending a lot of money in Wisconsin and soon will announce even more investment there,” Huckabee Sanders said.
Trump met Gou for discussions about the Wisconsin project at the White House on Wednesday, with Trump promising to visit when production starts late next year, Gou said.
This story has been updated since it was first published.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday voiced dissatisfaction with the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans- Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), whose latest meeting, concluded earlier the same day, appeared not to address the country’s application. In a statement, MOFA said the CPTPP commission had "once again failed to fairly process Taiwan’s application," attributing the inaction to the bloc’s "succumbing to political pressure," without elaborating. Taiwan submitted its CPTPP application under the name "Separate Customs Territory of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu" on Sept. 22, 2021 -- less than a week after China
THE GOOD WORD: More than 100 colleges on both sides of the Pacific will work together to bring students to Taiwan so they can learn Mandarin where it is spoken A total of 102 universities from Taiwan and the US are collaborating in a push to promote Taiwan as the first-choice place to learn Mandarin, with seven Mandarin learning centers stood up in the US to train and support teachers, the Foundation for International Cooperation in Higher Education of Taiwan (FICHET) said. At the annual convention of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages held over the weekend in New Orleans, Louisiana, a Taiwan Pavilion was jointly run by 17 representative teams from the FICHET, the Overseas Community Affairs Council, the Steering Committee for the Test of Proficiency-Huayu, the
A home-style restaurant opened by a Taiwanese woman in Quezon City in Metro Manila has been featured in the first-ever Michelin Guide honoring exceptional restaurants in the Philippines. The restaurant, Fong Wei Wu (豐味屋), was one of 74 eateries to receive a “Michelin Selected” honor in the guide, while one restaurant received two Michelin stars, eight received one star and 25 were awarded a “Bib Gourmand.” The guide, which was limited to restaurants in Metro Manila and Cebu, was published on Oct. 30. In an interview, Feng Wei Wu’s owner and chef, Linda, said that as a restaurateur in her 60s, receiving an
Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) on Monday announced light shows and themed traffic lights to welcome fans of South Korean pop group Twice to the port city. The group is to play Kaohsiung on Saturday as part of its “This Is For” world tour. It would be the group’s first performance in Taiwan since its debut 10 years ago. The all-female group consists of five South Koreans, three Japanese and Tainan’s Chou Tzu-yu (周子瑜), the first Taiwan-born and raised member of a South Korean girl group. To promote the group’s arrival, the city has been holding a series of events, including a pop-up
RSS