TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Foxconn founder Terry Gou (郭台銘) featured in a clip attacking Republican Party presidential candidate Donald Trump at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago on Thursday (Aug. 22).
The Taiwanese entrepreneur appeard in the clip narrated by an unnamed man who described himself as an ironworker in the US state of North Carolina. The clip showed Gou with Trump at a groundbreaking ceremony for a Foxconn investment project that began in 2017, and criticized Trump's record on infrastructure and tax when he was president.
"Donald Trump talked a big game about bringing jobs back to America. But it was all talk, like Foxconn," the narrator said.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that the clip included footage of a 2018 groundbreaking ceremony at a site that was slated to be a US$10 billion (NT$320 billion) Foxconn manufacturing center for LCD screens.
The Foxconn plan did not come to fruition, and the site is now being used by Microsoft as a US$3.3 billion data center. The Democratic Party has previously attacked Trump over the issue, claiming taxpayer money was wasted when it was given to Foxconn for the site.
However, a fact check from Politifact in July found that claims the attack was based on are only “half true.” “Our definition of half true is a statement that is partially accurate but leaves out important details or takes things out of context,” the Politifact article reads.
The article cited a community development leader who said the Foxconn plan, though unrealized, helped attract Microsoft’s large investment to the area.
The four-day long Democratic National Convention saw Kamala Harris and Tim Walz formally confirmed as the party’s presidential nominees. It featured hours of speeches from politicians and celebrities, including from former US President Barack Obama and former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
Gou is the former CEO of Foxconn. He founded the company in New Taipei in 1974, and it is now one of the world's largest contract electronics manufacturers.
