In Taiwan, a new candidate enters the race for the presidency: Terry Gou. The wealthy founder of tech giant Foxconn, the company that assembles iPhones for Apple, among other things. In the NOS Radio 1 Journaal contact with correspondent Garrie van Pinxteren.
“Terry Gou believes that the current governing party, the DPP, has brought Taiwan to the brink of collapse,” says Van Pinxteren. “In the last seven years things have only gotten worse with the economy, defense, diplomacy and he wants to change that.”
“He has previously tried to win the presidency from the KMT, the main opposition party, but he did not succeed,” says Van Pinxteren.
‘Relationship with China is the most important theme’
“The main election theme in Taiwan is the relationship with mainland China. The DPP, also known as the green one, wants to maintain as much independence as possible. They don’t want to placate China or say that Taiwan belongs to China.”
“They do not declare independence, because then China would invade. But they also say that they do not have to declare independence, because Taiwan is already an independent country,” says Van Pinxteren.
Green against blue
“While the KMT, the so-called blue one, says that China and Taiwan belong together. That does not mean that they join China, but they do accept the principle,” says Van Pinxteren. “They say Taiwan shouldn’t go against China.”
“If you do that too much, it will only lead to war. They think it’s time for a different policy that is more sympathetic and friendly to China.”
‘Doesn’t stand a chance’
“Terry Gou is also a blue one”, says Van Pinxteren. “So he wants to cooperate more with China. But strangely enough he does not do the cause of the blue people any good, because they already have two candidates against one green candidate.”
“The fact that he is now third will in practice lead to more fragmentation of the votes for the blue candidates. For example, none of the candidates has much chance of becoming president.”
This article is originally published on nporadio1.nl
