If, in China’s view, Terry Gou is a relatively acceptable candidate for Taiwan president, why is the Chinese government harrying him in the rear?
Chinese mainland tax authorities have conducted tax inspections on key enterprises of Foxconn in Guangdong and Jiangsu provinces, among other places, in accordance with the law. The natural resources department has also conducted on-site investigations into the land use of key enterprises of Foxconn in Henan and Hubei provinces, the Global Times has learned exclusively from sources on Sunday.
Gou is the founder of Foxconn. He resigned from the Foxconn board after announcing his candidacy.
The above-quoted report on the investigations of Foxconn comes to us from the Chinese Communist Party organ Global Times (October 22, 2023). Global Times stresses that the governmental inspections of Foxconn are perfectly normal. After all, just like everybody else, “Taiwan-funded firms should take social responsibilities,” according to a “Chinese mainland expert” (i.e., the CCP).
So these inspections constitute no special targeting of Gou. It’s just a matter of everybody having to take social responsibilities. Nothing to see here. Except that the CCP-planted article then says:
Analysts from both sides of the Taiwan Straits said that although Gou shows similar political stance with Kuomintang (KMT), the main opposition party in the island, his act of running for the elections is likely to further divide the island’s opposition camp, and this will in the end favor secessionist ruling Democratic Progressive Party’s candidate Lai Ching-te.
Many within the island suspect that the reason why Foxconn is being investigated is because Gou’s running for the elections, but Chinese mainland experts said the investigation is normal and legitimate, as any company goes through tax inspections.
The investigation is normal, but it may impact the elections, said experts, noting that if the secessionists who seek “Taiwan independence” win the elections, that would be a huge disaster to the peace and stability of the region, and the Chinese people of both sides of the Taiwan Straits, including the ones in the business circle, should work together to prevent disaster from happening.
The article is billed as a “GT Exclusive.” Supposedly, before the publication of this article, which was not preceded by any other reporting on the matter, nobody in the wider public knew anything about the inspections. Yet, somehow, prior to publication there was already a ferment of speculation in China and in Taiwan about the motive for the investigation that nobody yet knew anything about: “Many within the island suspect that the reason why Foxconn is being investigated is because Gou’s running for the elections. . . .”
The CCP is into trolling. To antagonize persons of normal decency and ability to see the obvious and to show who’s boss, CCP flacks and functionaries often deny what the party is doing, often even as they announce what it’s doing. By dropping the first nine words and the fourteenth word of the clause, we get the real message: “Foxconn is being investigated because Gou’s running for the elections.” Yes, even though Apple CEO Tim Cook, whose company relies on Foxconn to make the i-things, recently visited China to reaffirm Apple’s commitment to the special relationship between Apple Inc. and the Chinese Communist Party.
China doesn’t want Democratic Progressive Party candidate Lai Ching-te to win the presidency because Lai isn’t shy about acknowledging that “it is a fact that Taiwan is a sovereign country.” Gou believes that such a statement is way too provocative, since China denies it and is showing its displeasure with such acknowledgments by conducting many scary military exercises in the Taiwan Strait in the runup to Taiwan’s January 2024 presidential election.
The Kuomintang’s presidential candidate, Hou Yu-ih, also strives to appease China, saying “Taiwanese independence has no legal basis, so I oppose it,” while also rejecting the Hong Kong model of governance. The CCP would like Gou to drop out of the race so that he does not split the appeasement vote with fence-sitter Hou Yu-ih. If Gou were to drop out, all of Foxconn’s sudden problems with China’s tax and natural resource departments might magically disappear.
