The Taiwanese foreign minister called out Elon Musk after the tech billionaire again repeated Chinese Communist Party (CCP) propaganda concerning Taiwan.
Musk was speaking during an interview for the All-In Summit. “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 rambled. It’s not the first time he’s said Taiwan should belong to Communist China—the last time he made the claim, the CCP almost immediately gave Musk’s Tesla tax-exempt status in China. Musk might have bad ethics, but he’s good at making money.
The UK Guardian noted that Taiwan’s foreign minister, Joseph Wu, responded with understandable anger. Musk’s “comments came as dozens of Chinese warships and planes were detected near Taiwan for suspected military exercises,” the Guardian reported.
Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs posted on X (formerly Twitter), “Hope @elonmusk can also ask the #CCP to open @X to its people. Perhaps he thinks banning it is a good policy… Listen up, #Taiwan is not part of the #PRC [People’s Republic of China] & certainly not for sale! J[oseph]W[u].” X is banned in China.
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 https://t.co/HEhyTYYXFp
— 外交部 Ministry of Foreign Affairs, ROC (Taiwan) 🇹🇼 (@MOFA_Taiwan) September 13, 2023
Wu cited the claim that Musk turned off Starlink to “thwart Ukraine’s counterstrike against Russia,” a claim that has since reportedly been retracted by its originator. But Wu is certainly right to critique Musk’s views on Taiwan and the CCP. Taiwan is a free and independent nation, while the CCP is a usurping, illegitimate, and murderous dictatorship.
Related: Self-Professed Free Speech Warrior Elon Musk Says He’s Suing Over Censorship
Musk wrote an article last August for China Cyberspace, “a monthly magazine run by the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC), the central agency for internet control and regulation,” according to a translation of the article on Beijing Channel and The Post Millennial. In the article, Musk tried to encourage CCP interest in his microchip, artificial intelligence, and space travel projects. This year, Musk’s Tesla announced a new factory in China. Chinese law requires all foreign companies operating in China to host CCP cells. Musk reportedly told journalist Bari Weiss that there were “two sides” to the CCP’s genocide of Uyghurs.
When we hear of governments or businesses that worked with the Nazis, we are horrified and condemn them as complicit in mass murder and evil. Yet when businessmen like Musk kiss up to and profit from the CCP, which is without competition the greatest mass murderer in world history, there is a shocking apathy or indifference from the vast majority of the free world.
That is entirely unacceptable. Musk has completely compromised his integrity through his dealings with the CCP. Taiwan might not be for sale, but Elon Musk certainly is.
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