Billionaire businessman Terry Gou has resigned from the board of directors of Foxconn, the world’s largest electronics manufacturer, days after announcing his bid for Taiwan’s presidency.
In a statement to CNN, Foxconn’s parent company Hon Hai Technology Group confirmed Gou’s resignation and said it “would not immediately elect a director” as the board had eight other directors and independent directors.
A self-made, septuagenarian billionaire with a net worth of $6.8 billion, the 72-year-old Gou founded Foxconn, established as Hon Hai Precision Industry in Taiwan in 1974. It grew to become an international business empire and one of the world’s largest electronics contract manufacturers. Its top clients include Apple.
In 2019, he handed over leadership to Young Liu, the group’s current chairman, but remained as a director, and joined the Kuomintang nationalist political party.
Having declared his intention to run as an independent presidential candidate in 2024, Gou now has to secure approximately 290,000 endorsements between September 19 and November 2.
Taiwan’s presidential election, due in January, comes at period of fraught tensions between the island of 24 million people and its superpower neighbor, China.
Gou has criticized Taiwan’s independence movement and is characterized by his friendliness towards mainland Chinese business interests.
He joins an already crowded China-friendly camp to challenge the independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). This is his second bid at the presidency.
He has already held rallies around Taiwan in recent months to build support for his candidacy.
Taiwan’s presidential election is expected to take place on January 13, 2024.
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