Terry Gou

Terry Gou (; born 18 October 1950) is a Taiwanese billionaire businessman and politician. Gou is the founder and former chairman and chief executive officer of Foxconn, the world's largest contract manufacturer of electronics. Founded in 1974, Foxconn grew to become an international business empire, becoming the largest private employer and exporter in mainland China with a workforce of 1.2 million. As of 2022, Gou had a net worth of billion.

Beginning in 2016, speculation surrounding Gou's political ambitions arose ahead of the 2020 presidential election. In 2019, Gou resigned from Foxconn and joined the Kuomintang (KMT) to run for president, declaring he was instructed by the sea goddess Mazu in a dream to contest the election. Gou ultimately lost the election, coming in second in the Kuomintang primary. After leaving the party following the 2019 primary, Gou rejoined in 2023 and announced his intention to run for president in the 2024 presidential election, but after running as an independent candidate, he ended his campaign in late November 2023.

Once described as an "old friend" by Chinese leader Xi Jinping, Gou has been characterized as friendly to Mainland business interests during his political and business career. In December 2022, Gou was credited with helping to successfully lobby the Xi Jinping Administration to ease zero-COVID rules implemented during the pandemic. On foreign policy, Gou has criticized the Taiwan independence movement and has called for a deescalation of Sino–American tensions. Owing to his business background and image as a political outsider, Gou has been compared in international media to former U.S. President Donald Trump. Provided by Wikipedia