TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — When announcing his presidential bid on Monday (Aug. 28), Foxconn founder Terry Gou (郭台銘) said that he would give up his personal wealth in China to the Chinese Communist Party if it blackmailed him to do things in the party's interest and if that could be traded for not invading Taiwan.
During a press conference on Monday morning, Gou announced that he plans to run in Taiwan's 2024 presidential election as an independent candidate, though he must garner 290,000 signatures before he can officially enter the race.
When asked by the media if his investments in China would be threatened by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), Gou said that if Beijing told him it would confiscate Foxconn's assets if he “is disobedient,” "I would say 'Yes, please, do it!' If sacrificing my property will mean that the CCP will not attack Taiwan, I'm willing to make the sacrifice."
Gou said his willingness to sacrifice his personal wealth in China "proves that I have never been controlled by the CCP." He added, "It doesn't matter if the CCP comes to beat me and confiscate my property, I can still support myself now, and I am not threatened."
The tycoon said he is now only a shareholder of Foxconn, and he does not own any property in China, as everything is owned by Foxconn and by all of its shareholders. He said that all of the firm's operations in China are wholly overseas investments and assets of Foxconn.
Gou added that if the CCP wants to confiscate Foxconn's assets, "it is not targeting me alone, but confiscating the properties of 1 million shareholders, 50% of whom are from Wall Street in New York, financial institutions in London, and pension funds." "If the CCP dares to do this, no one in the world will dare to invest in China in the future," he said.
According to Gou, 99% of Foxconn's customers are the most important customers in Europe and the U.S., including Apple, Amazon, Tesla, and Nvidia. He said the CCP must consider, "If the factories are confiscated and shut down, what will happen to the factories?"
Gou said that under such a scenario, the world's supply chains would come to a halt. He added, "At this time, how will the Chinese government immediately explain to the world's brands, not to mention the fact that China's economy is in a terrible state now!"
He also stressed that Foxconn's upstream and downstream companies have more than hundreds of thousands of major suppliers. If Foxconn were to halt production, "Where would the world and Taiwan's semiconductor industry deliver goods? The entire supply chain would come to a standstill," he said.
He warned that if China disrupts the global supply chain, "I believe this is not just a problem for Foxconn or a company in Taiwan, but a problem for the whole world."
