Tesla CEO Elon Musk Says Taiwan Should Become China's Special Administrative Zone
The CEO of US electric car maker Tesla told the Financial Times that he thinks the governments of the People's Republic of China and Taiwan can reach a "reasonably acceptable" deal.
The Chinese ambassador to the US praised Musk, but his Taiwanese counterpart said that freedom is "not for sale."
Mr Musk's comments come after the electric car maker set a monthly sales record in China. Tesla delivered 83,135 Chinese-made electric vehicles in September, according to a report released Sunday by the China Passenger Car Association. This broke the previous record set by the company in June and was a milestone for Tesla's Shanghai plant, which is trying to ramp up production in the wake of the pandemic.
Elon Musk spoke about the heightened tensions between China and Taiwan in an extensive interview with the British business newspaper Financial Times, which was published on Friday.
"I would recommend...development of a special administrative zone for Taiwan that would be acceptable enough, but probably not to everyone's satisfaction," he said. "And it's possible, and I think probably actually, that they could have a softer deal than Hong Kong."
On Saturday, Chinese Ambassador to the US Qin Gang welcomed Musk's proposal to establish Taiwan as a special administrative zone. He tweeted that "peaceful reunification" and the "one country, two systems" model used in governing Hong Kong are "China's core principles for resolving the Taiwan issue."
"Provided that China's sovereignty, security, and development interests are guaranteed, after reunification, Taiwan will enjoy a high degree of autonomy as a special administrative region and a vast development space," the ambassador added.
Last week, Musk also offered to settle the issues between Russia and Ukraine, for which he was heavily criticized, including the proposal to transfer territories from Kyiv to Moscow.