The billionaire founding father of Taiwan's electronics big Foxconn has introduced he'll run for the nation's presidency, citing divine endorsement.
Terry Gou will stand within the primaries of the Kuomintang opposition occasion, selling a extra China-friendly coverage.
He mentioned sea goddess Mazu inspired him to advertise peace throughout the Taiwan Strait.
Taiwan's presidential election is scheduled for January 2020 at a time of heightened tensions with Beijing.
Mr Gou is one in every of Taiwan's richest folks and introduced his bid on Wednesday on the Kuomintang headquarters.
Earlier within the day he instructed a crowd at a well-liked temple in Taipei that he'd acquired divine inspiration for his political bid.
Foxconn founder Gou has made a fortune along with his firm manufacturing digital gadgets for different corporations.
The agency is extensively identified for producing lots of Apple's iPhone fashions.
Sea goddess Mazu is extensively worshipped in southern China in addition to nations with massive Taoist and Chinese language Buddhist communities reminiscent of Taiwan, Malaysia, and Vietnam.
She is believed to guard fishermen and sailors.
If profitable in his presidential bid, Mr Gou is anticipated to take a extra China-friendly strategy than the present administration of President Tsai Ing-wen.
Ms Tsai turned Taiwan's first feminine president in 2016 as the pinnacle of the historically pro-independence Democratic Progressive Occasion (DPP).
The Kuomintang is Taiwan's different massive political pressure and has ruled the territory for many of the years because it broke with the mainland in 1949.
Whereas the Kuomintang oversaw the separation from China after the civil warfare, it nonetheless seeks to have good relations with Beijing.
China sees Taiwan as a breakaway province that may ultimately be reunited with the remainder of the nation and relations between Beijing and Taipei have for many years been marked by hostility and indignant rhetoric.
Ties began enhancing within the 1980s and Taiwan relaxed guidelines on visits to and funding in China.
Mr Gou's Foxconn was one of many first Taiwanese corporations that invested in factories on the mainland, tapping into the a lot decrease wage prices in China.