Who is Terry Gou, Foxconn founder who will run Taiwan presidency?

Foxconn Technology Group founder Terry Gou on Monday announced that he will run for president of Taiwan as an independent candidate in 2024.

Foxconn Technology Group founder Terry Gou on Monday announced that he will run for president of Taiwan as an independent candidate in 2024. Gou, who has long-running ambitions to become the leader of the self-ruled island, would need to secure the signatures of around 290,000 voters to become president.

Terry Gou, founder of Taiwan's Foxconn. (Reuters)

Taiwan is set to hold the presidential election in January next year. Notably, Vice President Lai Ching-te, who is a member of President Tsai Ing-wen's Democratic Progressive Party, is the current frontrunner for the 2024 presidential election.

All you need to know about Terry Gou:

1. Terry Gou is a Taiwanese billionaire businessman and the founder and former chairman and chief executive officer of Foxconn - the world's largest contract manufacturer of electronics.
2. In 2016, Gou resigned from Foxconn and joined the Kuomintang (KMT) to run for president. However, he lost the election, coming in second in the Kuomintang primary. In 2019, the business tycoon announced his withdrawal from the Kuomintang.
3. According to Gou, he was “instructed” by the sea goddess Mazu in a dream to run as a candidate in the 2020 presidential election in Taiwan.
4. Gou's campaign reportedly got off to a slow start as a poll released by the Taiwan Public Opinion Foundation on July 20 showed only 15.2 percent of respondents would vote for him. That trailed Lai, with a support rating of 33.9 percent, Ko Wen-je of the Taiwan People’s Party with 20.5 percent support and Hou’s 18 percent, reported Bloomberg.
5. Gou has previously called for Taiwan and China to resume direct talks under the one-China framework - a reference to the notion that Taiwan is a part of China.

(With inputs from agencies)