The China Post
Date: November 17, 2016
By: Alan Fong, The China Post and agencies

At 3 p.m. local time, on Nov. 9, shortly after the victory of U.S. Republican presidential candidate

At 3 p.m. local time, on Nov. 9, shortly after the victory of U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump was all but confirmed, Hon Hai Precision Inc. Chairman Terry Gou (郭台銘) and his closest confidantes gathered in Room 501 of the corporation’s New Taipei City headquarters…

Donald Trump was all but confirmed, Hon Hai Precision Inc. Chairman Terry Gou (郭台銘) and his closest confidantes gathered in Room 501 of the corporation’s New Taipei City headquarters, according to a Wednesday, Nov. 16 report by Next Magazine. The meeting inside the “War Room,” the highest-level conference in the history of Hon Hai, according to the magazine, was supposed to be about the contract manufacturing giant’s response to the election of Trump. Gou surprised the top-ranking Hon Hai executives by saying, “Regarding running for the presidency in 2020, what do you think about that?” the magazine reported.

The possibility of a Gou candidacy in Taiwan’s 2020 presidential election has become one of the hottest topics in local media. Several political commentators, including former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Shen Fu-hsiung (沈富雄) and former news anchor Lee Yen-chiou (李艷秋), have clamored for a Gou 2020 campaign, likening him to the larger-than-life tycoon that is Trump.

Trump was elected on a wave of anti-establishment sentiment and anxiety in a world still troubled both by slow economic recovery seven years after the Great Recession and by destabilizing factors such as the Islamic State. Such sentiment is even stronger among people with conservative worldviews who are witnessing the sea change in social issues such as same-sex marriage. For them, the world that they once found familiar and comfortable seems to be fading away against their will.    [FULL  STORY]