Taiwan’s KMT might pick New Taipei City mayor over Foxconn’s Gou as President nominee

If you are staying in Taiwan or even follow Taiwan from other parts of the world, you must be aware that there is an election taking place on the island nation next year which will definitely be a huge one considering the fact that China’s tensions with the US and Taiwan have not eased one bit and also that China does not like the current President of Taiwan as well as the Vice President of Taiwan who is going to be nominated as the next President of Taiwan if the ruling party is re-elected.

Due to this reason, Foxconn’s founder Terry Gou says that he will work closely with China if elected as President. It is known that China also does not have any objections with Gou which means that the understanding between China and Taiwan will be higher under Gou’s leadership. However, it is also worth noting that there is a risk of higher intervention by the Chinese if Gou is elected to power. Amidst all this, Taiwan’s KMT from where Terry Gou is supposed to be nominated as the next President of Taiwan has different plans. A new report from Bloomberg reveals that the KMT is planning to nominate New Taipei City’s mayor Hou Yu-ih as its Presidential candidate for next year’s Taiwan elections.

Now, this would be a huge surprise for Foxconn’s Terry Gou who hoped to be the Presidential Candidate from Taiwan’s main opposition party. At the moment, Gou’s office said that they will not comment on this report until an official announcement has been made. Also, Hou’s office said that this is speculation right now and they also didn’t want to comment on it. The report also adds that KMT will announce Hou as the official candidate from their party as soon as Wednesday. Hou said that “no matter what the process is, I respect the party’s rhythm and rules.” The reason why Foxconn’s Gou is not preferred is because of Hou’s “strength in opinion polls and broader support among lawmakers and local government leaders”. It is likely that Gou would form a new party if he is not nominated by the KMT.