Foxconn Founder Terry Gou Wants To Be Taiwan's President—And A Go Between For U.S. And China

IF YOU WANT TO KNOW HOW FOCUSED TERRY Gou is on the campaign trail, look at his pants. When the billionaire Foxconn CEO gives televised interviews, senior aides crouch by his feet, just off camera. If he strays off message, they’re primed to steer the presidential contender back on course by giving his pant legs a quick tug.

- Charlie Campbell

Gou’s cuffs remained unruffled as he spoke to local news stations on June 15 at Kun Shan University in the southern Taiwan city of Tainan before greeting students with running high fives like a WWE wrestler. His platform in the 2020 presidential election in the island territory, he says, is how to profit from a trade war. As the U.S. and China have ramped up tit-for-tat tariffs on a range of imports over the past year, Taiwan is in a prime position to exploit the conflict, Gou tells TIME. “The trade war is also a technology war,” he says. “Taiwan can become the supply-chain in between.”

Although the two sides recently brokered a temporary trade cease-fire, the U.S. and China are locked into divergent paths long term. Gou, 68, sees it ending with two rival tech zones: China servicing developing nations in Asia, Africa and Latin America on one side, and the U.S., Europe and allies on the other. “People still talk about the G-20,” he says, “but today there’s really only the G-2.” That represents an opportunity for Taiwan, which has historic links with both of these superpowers, to be a “gatekeeper,” he says.

It’s a theory he’s hoping to put into practice as leader of this island of 23 million people, which has ruled itself since effectively splitting from the mainland following China’s civil war in 1949. In June, Gou stepped down as chairman of the company he founded over 40 years ago to dedicate himself full time to the race for leader of the opposition Kuomintang party, from which he could challenge incumbent President Tsai Ing-wen next year. Gou says deteriorating cross-strait relations are what pushed him into the political fray. “Today’s President doesn’t have communication channels with Beijing,” says Gou. “This is a very bad situation.” But is Taiwan’s wealthiest man the right person to fix it?