Taipei, Oct. 23 (CNA) Members of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) have accused China of opening “politically motivated” probes to pressure Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. founder Terry Gou (郭台銘) into abandoning his independent bid for Taiwan’s presidency.
On Sunday, Chinese state-run media outlet the Global Times reported that tax authorities had “conducted tax inspections on key enterprises of Foxconn [Hon Hai] in Guangdong and Jiangsu provinces, among other places, in accordance with the law.”
The report also stated that China’s Ministry of Natural Resources had conducted “on-site investigations into the land use of key enterprises of Foxconn in Henan and Hubei provinces.”
Gou, who resigned from Hon Hai’s board in September but still holds a large stake in the company, has yet to publicly respond to the report.
However, his campaign team denied that the cancelation of a scheduled visit to a local temple on Monday was due to the probe.
The timing of the probe has seen some accuse Beijing of seeking to pressure Gou into dropping so that Taiwan’s opposition camp has a better chance of ousting the DPP in next year’s presidential election.
At a press conference Monday, members of the DPP’s legislative caucus accused Beijing of trying to push for and accelerate the cooperation of Taiwan’s opposition parties.
The caucus added that this was not the first time the Chinese government making moves on Taiwanese businesses with the aim to influence Taiwanese politics.
In 2005, Chimei Corp. Chairman Shi Wen-long (許文龍), who had openly supported the then-DPP government, also met with Chinese tax audits threat. Shi released a public statement renouncing Taiwan’s independence and supporting China’s Anti-succession Law passed in early 2005.
In 2016, Taiwanese restaurant chain HaiPaWang was fined by the Chinese authorities and later in the same year the company issued a statement pronouncing that it was not a “green [DPP-leaning] Taiwanese company” and was “resolutely in support the two sides belonging to one China.”
Most recently in 2021, Far Eastern Group was fined 474 million Chinese yuan (US$64.78 million) for various violations in various Chinese provinces. Then-Taiwan Affairs Office spokesperson Zhu Fenglian (朱鳳蓮) openly said Taiwanese enterprises with Chinese investments should not be “ungrateful.”
Asked whether he thought Beijing was seeking to bolster his candidacy, KMT presidential nominee Hou Yu-ih (侯友宜) said what Taiwanese businesses worry about the most is cross-strait instability, adding that he would conduct cross-strait conversations if elected in order to facilitate a stable business environment that would not be subjected to political interference.
Meanwhile, Hon Hai issued a short statement on Sunday in which it said the company had always adhered to the legal compliance principle and would cooperate with the “relevant units on the related work and operations.”
