On Thursday, Taiwan slammed the CEO of Tesla, Elon Musk for “blindly flattering” China after he called the self-ruled island “an integral part” of China.
China has declared Taiwan as its territory awaiting “reunification” and has heightened pressure since independence-leaning Tsai Ing-wen, Taiwanese President, became President of Taiwan in 2016.
Musk pulled Taipei’s rage for comparing Taiwan to the US state of Hawaii in a podcast and naming the island “an integral part” of China.
Jeff Liu, a Foreign Ministry spokesman told reporters that Musk “blindly flatters China, and if his remarks are caused out of commercial interests, such remarks are not deserving of being taken seriously and the speaker does not deserve respect.
He said that if Musk’s free will is for sale then we don’t know but Taiwan is not for sale.
Joseph Wu, the foreign minister of Taiwan earlier criticized Musk in his post on X, formerly known as Twitter which the billionaire owns, telling him he asked China’s ruling Communist Party to open it to people in China.
Last week, Musk said that he had intercepted a Ukraine attack on Russian warships in the Black Sea in 2022 by turning off internet access to Starlink, his own satellite-based communications system.
The tycoon has flared rage in Taiwan before, most recently in May for telling Beijing will inevitably integrate Taipei.
In an interview, Musk told CNBC that the official policy of China is that Taiwan should be integrated… One does not need to read between the lines…There is a certain inevitability to the situation.
Musk, who has comprehensive business interests in China, often wades into social and geopolitical problems in comments he posts on his social media platform.
