Taiwan hits back at Elon Musk claim that it is ‘an integral part of China’ and teases him over Beijing’s Twitter ban
Tesla co-founder previously suggested Taiwan should become a ‘special administrative zone’ in China
Elon Musk, the owner of X/Twitter, was called out on his platform by Taiwan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs after calling the island nation an "integral part of China" and insisting that he understands "China well."
Mr Musk made the comments on the "All In" podcast while answering a question about China and the future of his involvement with the nation.
During the interview, Mr Musk said "I think I understand China well," and notes that he's been there several times and has met with high-ranking officials.
He then turns his attention to Taiwan, and compares its relationship to China to Hawaii's relationship to the US, insisting it is "an integral part of China that is arbitrarily not part of China”.
That comparison is flawed in two major ways: first, Hawaii is not a contested region, but is unquestionably a US state with all the same powers and freedoms granted any other US state; second, Taiwan's assertion that it is its own state is not arbitrary, but instead a position it has held for decades.
Taiwan should simply not sell microchips to Muskian companies. Let him use 80s ex Soviet chips instead.
As great of a plan as that sounds, companies like TSMC wouldn't dare to risk tanking their profits just to spite a single company run by an absolute dingleberry.
TSMC will do nicely with other companies (re: Apple, which gets most of its chips anyway). Threatening a leading manufacturer is silly when there’s plenty of other companies desperate for premiere hardware.