Former Taitung County commissioner Justin Huang (黃健庭) was to be Hon Hai Precision Industry Co founder Terry Gou’s (郭台銘) running mate before the tycoon decided to forgo a presidential bid last week, Global Views Monthly said yesterday.
In an interview published by the Chinese-language magazine yesterday, Huang said that Gou asked him to be his vice presidential candidate on Aug. 26.
He said that he agreed to the proposal, believing that, as a nontraditional politician, Gou would be able to carve to a new path for Taiwan.
Photo: Chang Tsung-chiu, Taipei Times
The two met for the first time in May, when Gou visited Taitung during the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential primary, Huang said.
He said that after spending several months working closely with the tycoon, he felt that “Gou would be a great president, although not so great a candidate, especially due to Taiwan’s irrational election culture and political environment.”
Gou devoted a great amount of time to discussing national policies with academics and think tanks when his aides wanted him to spend more time canvassing, Huang said.
Despite being a successful entrepreneur, Gou was almost “a rookie in politics to a shocking degree,” he said.
For example, Huang said that when meeting people in Taitung, Gou admitted that the county would not be a priority for him if he became president.
While Gou meant to say that the development of Taitung should be delegated to the local government so the central government could focus on larger policies, “politicians usually do not say that,” Huang said.
Regarding Gou’s decision to quit the party, Huang said that the tycoon had originally planned to launch an independent presidential bid as a KMT member and let the party decide how to handle his membership.
However, Gou decided to leave the party on Sept. 12 after seeing a KMT ad published in major newspapers urging him to cooperate with the KMT’s presidential candidate, Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), Huang said.
The ad angered Gou, because some of the party heavyweights who signed it had recently told him to launch an independent presidential bid, he said.
One primary reason leading to Gou’s decision not to run was that his mother has been ill for months and he wanted to spend more time with her and his family, Huang said.
In addition, Gou believed that President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) would win re-election because of the ongoing protests in Hong Kong, Huang said.
Gou was also disappointed at Taiwan’s election culture, which he felt made rational discussion of policies very difficult, he added.
“[Gou] is definitely a warrior, but elections are not the right battlefield for him,” Huang said.
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
VIGILANCE: The military is paying close attention to actions that might damage peace and stability in the region, the deputy minister of national defense said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) might consider initiating a hack on Taiwanese networks on May 20, the day of the inauguration ceremony of president-elect William Lai (賴清德), sources familiar with cross-strait issues said. While US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s statement of the US expectation “that all sides will conduct themselves with restraint and prudence in the period ahead” would prevent military actions by China, Beijing could still try to sabotage Taiwan’s inauguration ceremony, the source said. China might gain access to the video screens outside of the Presidential Office Building and display embarrassing messages from Beijing, such as congratulating Lai
Four China Coast Guard ships briefly sailed through prohibited waters near Kinmen County, Taipei said, urging Beijing to stop actions that endanger navigation safety. The Chinese ships entered waters south of Kinmen, 5km from the Chinese city of Xiamen, at about 3:30pm on Monday, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement later the same day. The ships “sailed out of our prohibited and restricted waters” about an hour later, the agency said, urging Beijing to immediately stop “behavior that endangers navigation safety.” Ministry of National Defense spokesman Sun Li-fang (孫立方) yesterday told reporters that Taiwan would boost support to the Coast Guard