Taiwan’s foreign minister slams Elon Musk for calling it “integral part of China”

Slamming Elon Musk for calling Taiwan an "integral part of China," the Taiwan foreign minister has asserted that Taiwan is "not for sale"

Taipei: Slamming Elon Musk for calling Taiwan an “integral part of China,” the Taiwan foreign minister has asserted that Taiwan is “not for sale”.

Musk, the owner of the social media platform X (formerly known as Twitter), as well as the Tesla (TSLA.O) electric car company and Starlink satellite network has stated that Taiwan is an integral part of China.

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His remarks at the All-In Summit in Los Angeles were recorded and posted to YouTube this week.

“Their (Beijing’s) policy has been to reunite Taiwan with China. From their standpoint, maybe it is analogous to Hawaii or something like that, like an integral part of China that is arbitrarily not part of China mostly because … the US Pacific Fleet has stopped any sort of reunification effort by force,” Musk said.

Responding to this, Taiwan’s Foreign Minister Joseph Wu, posted on X on Wednesday night, “Hope @elonmusk can also ask the #CCP to open @X to its people. Perhaps he thinks banning it is a good policy, like turning off @Starlink to thwart #Ukraine’s counterstrike against #Russia. Listen up, #Taiwan is not part of the #PRC & certainly not for sale! JW.” Taiwan has been claimed by the People’s Republic of China as its territory.

However, Taiwan’s government claims that because the People’s Republic of China has never ruled the island, it has no authority to claim sovereignty over it, speak for it, or represent it on the global stage, and that only the people of Taiwan can decide their future.

Taiwan was formally recognised by just 13 countries: Belize, Guatemala, Haiti, Paraguay, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Palau, Tuvalu, Eswatini, and the Vatican City.

However, after Tsai Ing-wen became Taiwan’s president in 2016, nine countries shifted allegiances to China, and Beijing has amplified its diplomatic efforts to isolate Taiwan. Taiwan’s government claims that it is a sovereign country with the right to state-to-state ties.