‘He’s not Taiwan’s Trump’: Beijing adviser writes off Foxconn boss Terry Gou as future president
- Tycoon is running ‘essentially as a spoiler’, says Central Party School adjunct professor Xie Maosong
- Election campaign ‘destined to end in disaster’, he says
Foxconn chairman Terry Gou is not Taiwan’s answer to Donald Trump and his campaign to become president of the self-ruled island will end in disaster, a senior adviser to China’s Communist Party told the South China Morning Post.
Xie Maosong, an adjunct professor at the Central Party School, where mainland officials are trained, said in an interview on Friday that the tycoon’s role in the leadership race was “essentially as a spoiler” as it would only benefit Tsai Ing-wen, Taiwan’s incumbent leader.
Since the announcement, Beijing has been relatively quiet on the subject, with most mainland media, officials and academics opting not to comment. Only Global Times, a nationalist tabloid owned by the party mouthpiece People’s Daily, entered into the discussion, with an editorial titled, “Gou’s road to the presidency will be tortuous”.
Xie, however, had no such reservations, saying that even if Gou made it through to a face-off with Tsai, his chances of winning were slim as his support would be capped at about 30 per cent.
