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The richest man in the world, boss of SpaceX and Tesla, a regular at sensational declarations, did not fail to recommend, in an interview with FinancialTimes, to make Taiwan a special administrative zone under the Chinese state. Which earned him criticism and jeers from the political class in Taipei.
Unacceptable, dismissive, misguided…and potentially dangerous to our national security. The harshest words came from mayoral candidates in the Taiwanese capital, Taipei, campaigning until the end of November.
Elon Musk makes a pact with the devil, tackles a former Taiwanese minister. He is stirring up trouble to please Beijing in order to gobble up new shares of the Chinese car market.
In his lunch with the @FT @khalafroula, @elonmusk also has a Taiwan peace plan
“A special administrative zone for Taiwan that is reasonably palatable…I think probably, in fact, that they could have an arrangement that’s more lenient than Hong Kong.” https://t.co/0HUx6ulmFE
— Felicia Schwartz (@felschwartz) October 7, 2022
In Taiwan, the political class sees it as a dismissal of the richest man in the world, to the Chinese authorities, who allowed his company Tesla to produce through its Shanghai factory more than 80,000 electric cars in the month of september.
A historic record on which his boss would seek to surf, even if it means aligning himself with the official rhetoric of Beijing, according to which Taiwan has always been and must remain a Chinese region.
More cautious, but just as clear, Taiwan’s de facto ambassador to the United States, Hsiao Bi-khim, let him know that Taiwanese freedom and democracy were not for sale.
Any proposal relating to the future of Taiwanese must be made in a free framework, without coercion, and in accordance with the democratic aspirations of its citizens.
►Read also : National holiday in Taiwan: “We take responsibility for our defense”
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