Taiwan criticizes Tesla owner for another political mistake

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【Summary】Taiwan criticizes Elon Musk for calling Taiwan an integral part of China. Taiwan's foreign minister asserts that Taiwan is not for sale and urges Musk to ask China to open his social media platform to its people. Musk has previously made similar remarks about Taiwan and China's relationship. Taiwan's government rejects China's sovereignty claims and emphasizes that only the people of Taiwan can decide their future.

FutureCar Staff Sep 14, 2023 9:26 AM PT

Taiwan criticizes Tesla owner for another political mistake

Taiwan's foreign minister has criticized Elon Musk after he described Taiwan as being "like Hawaii" and asserted that it was an integral part of China. Musk made these comments during the All-In Summit in Los Angeles, which were uploaded to YouTube. He stated that Beijing's policy was to reunite Taiwan with China and compared the situation to Hawaii being part of the United States. Taiwan's foreign minister, Joseph Wu, responded on social media, expressing his hope that Musk would ask China to open up its social media platform to its people.

Wu also referred to Musk's refusal to activate his Starlink satellite network in Crimea's port city of Sevastopol last year, which was requested by Ukraine for an attack on Russia's fleet. Wu emphasized that Taiwan is not part of the People's Republic of China (PRC) and is not for sale. Taiwan's democratically elected government strongly rejects China's sovereignty claims and believes that only the people of Taiwan can decide their future.

This is not the first time Musk has caused controversy regarding Taiwan. Last October, he suggested that tensions between China and Taiwan could be resolved by handing over some control of Taiwan to Beijing, which drew a similar strong reprimand from Taiwan. Musk's comments have once again brought attention to the complex and sensitive issue of relations between Beijing and Taipei.

Source: Reuters