Taiwan blasted over Musk after he compared Taiwan to Hawaii, calling it an “integral part” of China
Taiwan has told the CEO of Tesla Motors and Owner of X (formerly Twitter) – Elon Musk it is “not for sale” after he said the island is a part of China.
Musk’s remarks came during a business Summit where he compared Taiwan to Hawaii, calling it an “integral part” of China.
Reacting to Musk’s remarks, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, ROC (Taiwan) tweeted, “Listen up, Taiwan is not part of the PRC [People’s Republic of China] & certainly not for sale!”
Prior to this, Musk tweeted, “Beijing’s policy has been to sort of reunite Taiwan with China. From their standpoint, you know, maybe it’s analogous to like Hawaii or something like that, like an integral part of China that is arbitrarily not part of China mostly because … the US Pacific Fleet has stopped any sort of reunification effort by force.”
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, ROC (Taiwan) further tweeted,
Hope @elonmusk can also ask the #CCP to open @X to its people. Perhaps he thinks banning it is a good policy, like turning off @Starlink to thwart #Ukraine’s counterstrike against #Russia. Listen up, #Taiwan is not part of the #PRC & certainly not for sale! JW https://t.co/HEhyTYYXFp
— 外交部 Ministry of Foreign Affairs, ROC (Taiwan) 🇹🇼 (@MOFA_Taiwan) September 13, 2023
This is not the first time Musk, who has business interests in China, has angered Taiwan’s Government with his comments. In October 2022, he suggested that tensions between Beijing and Taipei could be resolved by giving China some control over Taiwan.
In an interview with the leading financial daily – Financial Times, Musk said that he believed the two Governments could reach a reasonably palatable arrangement. While China’s Ambassador to the United States (U.S.) praised Musk, his Taiwanese Counterpart also said freedom is not for sale.
Earlier this week, China conducted air and naval drills around Taiwan to showcase its military strength. Taiwan detected a total of 40 Chinese military aircraft and 10 ships in its waters. At that time, Wu said that China’s military drills were intended to influence Taiwan’s elections in January 2024.
Wu tweeted, “The PRC [People’s Republic of China] has made it clear it wants to shape Taiwan’s coming national election. Well, it’s up to our citizens to decide, not the bully next door.”
Besides, Tesla has a large manufacturing plant in Shanghai and he most recently visited the country in May 2023, where he met top Chinese Officials. Post that, the Foreign Ministry of China announced that Tesla was willing to expand its business in the country. Tesla is deeply reliant on China as deliveries from the Shanghai facility account for more than half of its global sales.
Musk’s visit drew attention owing to ongoing U.S. – China tense relations. Despite resuming high-level dialogue, the two countries still disagree on a range of issues, including Taiwan, which has emerged as one of the biggest flashpoints between them. The U.S. has long been Taipei’s chief ally.
