Hon Hai Precision Industry Co founder Terry Gou (郭台銘) yesterday said he hoped the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would stop harassing him after the party’s Central Standing Committee on Wednesday decided that he should remain a member.
KMT Vice Chairman Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) on Wednesday morning told Gou that KMT Chairman Wu Den-Yih (吳敦義) had been informed of his wish to complete the paperwork for resigning his membership as soon as possible, and that Wu had promised to handle the matter during the Central Standing Committee meeting, Gou’s office said in a statement yesterday.
However, “the KMT reneged on its promise” by deciding that it would ask Gou to stay, it said.
KMT spokesman Ouyang Lung (歐陽龍) reportedly said after the meeting that the tycoon is “undoubtedly still a party member,” which Gou found “perplexing and regrettable,” it said.
Gou will definitely not accept the party’s request to stay, it said, adding that both sides should “stop interfering and harassing each other.”
Gou on Sept. 12 announced that he was quitting the party and returned his membership card, expressing disappointment at its reactionary culture.
Prior to that, the KMT had threatened to revoke his membership if he launched an independent presidential bid.
The abrupt shift in the KMT’s attitude toward Gou shows it is clearly after the tycoon’s money, former KMT Central Advisory Committee member Chen Hung-chang (陳宏昌) said.
Chen was last month expelled by the party for implying in a public speech that Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), the KMT’s presidential candidate, spent most of his time playing majhong, drinking and womanizing.
The KMT acted quickly to expel him for speaking the truth about Han, despite all the contributions he had made to the party over the past 45 years, he said.
In contrast, Gou had accused the KMT of being reactionary and engaging in backroom horse-trading, and was on the verge of launching a presidential bid, but the party is still “fawning over him because of his money,” Chen said.
“It is disgusting and shameless,” he said.
Asked about the Central Standing Committee’s decision to try to keep Gou, Han’s campaign office spokeswoman Ho Ting-huan (何庭歡) said that they respect KMT headquarters’ decision.
Additional reporting by Chen Hsin-yu
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