Taiwan Expresses Displeasure Over Musk's Cross-Strait Remarks: "No Nation's Citizens Would Accept This"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

Taiwan has expressed strong displeasure toward Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, who made remarks suggesting handing over control of Taiwan to China.

According to Taiwan's Central News Agency (CNA) on the 9th, the Mainland Affairs Council, Taiwan's agency responsible for China-related matters, stated the previous day, "Musk simply proposed turning a democratic country into a special administrative region of an authoritarian state based on corporate investment interests," and criticized, "This proposal will not be accepted by the people of Taiwan or any other country."

They continued, "Taiwan holds an important position in regional democratic politics and global science and technology," emphasizing, "Taiwan is not a product of any commercial transaction and has already rejected any institutional arrangements by the Chinese Communist Party."

The Mainland Affairs Council added, "Taiwan has long cooperated with Tesla in advanced science and technology supply chains such as semiconductors," and "We welcome businesspeople like Musk to engage with Taiwan and understand the development of Taiwan's free democracy."

Taiwan's ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) also stated through a spokesperson, "Musk's views not only infringe on Taiwan's national sovereignty but could also harm democracy," adding, "Taiwan will firmly protect its sovereignty and democracy and will not shrink back."

Chen Shih-chung, the DPP's Taipei mayoral candidate, said, "Musk is a successful entrepreneur, but he needs to study more about the complex cross-strait relations," and argued, "Such remarks could affect Taiwan's security, so we must strongly protest."

About half of Tesla's global electric vehicle deliveries last year were produced at the Shanghai factory in China. On the 7th (local time), Musk said in an interview with the British financial newspaper Financial Times, "My proposal is to consider making Taiwan a special administrative region," and added, "I think we could reach a more generous agreement than Hong Kong."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.