Taiwan calls out Elon Musk after he calls it ‘integral part of China’
www.independent.co.uk
Tesla co-founder previously suggested Taiwan should become a ‘special administrative zone’ in China

Tesla co-founder previously suggested Taiwan should become a ‘special administrative zone’ in China

Elon Musk, the owner of X/Twitter, was called out on his platform by Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs after calling the island nation an “integral part of China” and insisting that he understands “China well.”

Mr Musk made the comments on the “All In” podcast while answering a question about China and the future of his involvement with the nation.

During the interview, Mr Musk said “I think I understand China well,” and notes that he’s been there several times and has met with high-ranking officials.

He then turns his attention to Taiwan, and compares its relationship to China to Hawaii’s relationship to the US, insisting it is "an integral part of China that is arbitrarily not part of China”.

That comparison is flawed in two major ways: first, Hawaii is not a contested region, but is unquestionably a US state with all the same powers and freedoms granted any other US state; second, Taiwan’s assertion that it is its own state is not arbitrary, but instead a position it has held for decades.

  • dublet@lemmy.worldEnglish
    541·
    1 year ago

    He has a clear financial interest due the Tesla factories in China and the amount of cars sold there.

    • Buffalox@lemmy.worldEnglish
      191·
      1 year ago

      Yes, and I bet China is leveraging that, and Musk falls for it.

      But I doubt it surpasses USA and Europe combined. Which should be his real interests, and probably would be, if we used similar methods the Chinese do.

      • dublet@lemmy.worldEnglish
        191·
        1 year ago

        According to this Tesla’s sales breaks down like this in 2022:

        • 50% USA
        • 25% China
        • 25% Other countries combined

        That’s a significant chunk of its business.

        • Buffalox@lemmy.worldEnglish
          9·
          1 year ago

          Yes absolutely, although I see the numbers slightly different:

          The graph says USA 41, China 18, other 23 billion USD. That translates to:

          • USA 50%
          • China 22%
          • other 28.

          USA is higher than I expected, but still USA and Europe are way more important combined than China from that graph. So maybe Musk shouldn’t rely so much on China, if he wants to look out for his own interests.

          • dublet@lemmy.worldEnglish
            21·
            1 year ago

            I rounded for the sake of argument. If you look at the overall trend you’ll also see that China is the biggest growth market. Why would you think for one moment that any company would cut off their second biggest market which also has the biggest growth?

            • Buffalox@lemmy.worldEnglish
              3·
              1 year ago

              Fair enough on the rounding, and I wouldn’t expect him to cut off a valuable market, except his actions could mean cutting off the actual biggest markets, and there is no guarantee China will continue their growth rate in the future.

              And is it really necessary for him to be a shill for China to make business there? I’d expect just shutting up would suffice.

              I’d say he is compromised to gain an advantage.

              • jarfil@lemmy.worldEnglish
                1·
                1 year ago

                And is it really necessary for him to be a shill for China to make business there?

                That one is easy: yes.

                If he wants to do some real business in there, he also needs to break some laws so they can blackmail hold him in check and take away his business in case he ever refuses to follow orders.