Taiwan has told billionaire Elon Musk that it is “not for sale”, following his claim that the island was a part of China.
“Listen up, Taiwan is not part of the PRC [People’s Republic of China] & certainly not for sale!” foreign minister Joseph Wu said on Mr. Musk’s X.
At a business summit this week, Mr. Musk compared Taiwan to Hawaii and described it as an “integral part” of China.
Tensions between the two sides have risen over the past year as Beijing claims self-governed Taiwan.
China has been regularly displaying its military might around the island of Taiwan, most recently this week with air and naval exercises. More than 40 military aircraft and about 10 ships from China were reportedly spotted in Taiwanese waters, according to the island nation.
Mr. Musk, who has business dealings in China, has already enraged Taiwan’s government with his remarks before. He proposed in October that China should be granted some degree of control over Taiwan in order to ease tensions between Beijing and Taipei.
The two governments could come to a “reasonably palatable” agreement, he said at the time in an interview with the Financial Times. Although Mr. Wu’s Taiwanese counterpart said that freedom is “not for sale,” the Chinese ambassador to the US praised Elon Musk.
Mr. Wu also made the following post on X: “Hope Elon Musk can also ask the CCP [Chinese Community Party] to open X to its people.” The Chinese government has outlawed Mr. Musk’s microblogging service, X, formerly known as Twitter.
Mr. Wu had previously claimed that China’s military exercises were done to sway Taiwan’s elections in January.
“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,” he wrote on X.
Shanghai is home to a sizable manufacturing facility for Mr. Musk’s electric vehicle company Tesla, and he most recently traveled there in May. The Chinese Foreign Ministry stated that Tesla was willing to increase its business in the nation after he met with senior Chinese officials.
His visit received a lot of attention because of the deteriorating ties between China and the US in recent years. The two nations continue to disagree on a number of issues, including Taiwan, which has emerged as one of their biggest flashpoints, despite picking up high-level communication. Taipei’s main ally for a long time has been the US.
Source-BBC
