Tesla CEO Elon Musk wades into the tension between Taiwan and China by offering proposals, where he stated the two governments could reach a reasonably palatable arrangement.
Musk weighed in on heightened China-Taiwan tensions in a wide-ranging interview with the UK business newspaper, the Financial Times.
He said, “My recommendation would be to figure out a special administrative zone for Taiwan that is reasonably palatable, probably won’t make everyone happy.
“And it’s possible, and I think probably, in fact, that they could have an arrangement that’s more lenient than Hong Kong.”
According to reports, Musk advice was to create a relatively acceptable special administrative zone for Taiwan, which would most likely not please everyone.
Musk made the comments in response to a question about China, where his Tesla electric vehicle business has a huge facility in Shanghai which accounted for over half of Tesla’s global deliveries last year.
China’s ambassador to the US Qin Gang welcomed Mr Musk’s suggestion to establish Taiwan as a special administrative zone.
He said on Twitter that “peaceful reunification” and the “one country two systems” model used in governing Hong Kong were China’s “basic principles for resolving the Taiwan question”.
“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 space for development,” he added.
What’s the Taiwan-China conflict all about?
China views Taiwan as part of its territory and vows to “unify” the democratically-governed island with the mainland, using force if necessary. Tensions between the two sides have been running high for some time now.
China, which claims democratically-run Taiwan as one of its provinces, has long pledged to annex it. It has also not ruled out using force to do so.
Taiwan’s administration on the other hand has on countless occasions firmly opposed China’s claims, stating that only the island’s 23 million people can decide its fate.
Tensions between China and Taiwan have been rising in recent years driven by differences over the island’s status.
Beijing claims sovereignty over the territory and has pledged to “unify” it with the mainland — by force if necessary.