Musk's Solution to Taiwan Issue

Musk says Taiwan should be under "one country, two systems"

Elon Musk seems to be playing right into Chinese hands.

He thinks he has the solution to the Taiwan issue and explained it to the Financial Times the other day.

"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."

He has a Tesla factory in Shanghai

Err... we all know how that went.

Musk believed conflict with Taiwan was inevitable, and warned of its potential impact on not only Tesla, as he has a factory in Shanghai, but also in iPhone maker Apple, as well as the global economy, which he estimated would take a 30 percent hit.

Former Global Times chief editor Hu Xijin took the opportunity to comment on Musk's remarks.

"Taiwan's Democratic Progressive Party authorities will hate you. Many US lawmakers and political elites also dislike [the idea] which signs a different tune to the current US policy on the Taiwan Strait," Hu said on Weibo.

"It can't be ruled out that he may have some trouble in the future for having expressed these political views."

"It has also reflected the world's basic understanding that Taiwan is a part of China and reunification is the general trend," Hu added.

Ip was quick to praise Musk's proposed solution

That's not the basic understanding most people have outside of China.

It seems Musk has drunk the Kool-aid on this one.

It's the lao wai (foreigner) being the shill for the Chinese authoritarian regime so that he can make gobs more money. Beijing must be clapping its hands with delight at having such a compliant spokesperson.

Meanwhile pro-Beijing lawmaker Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee is on the Musk-praising bandwagon. 

On Twitter she wrote: "Elon Musk has spoken well on Taiwan suggesting it should become a special administrative region like Hong Kong! The world should pay attention to this voice of reason and pragmatism."

He is not quite the voice of reason and pragmatism when he suddenly announced he would buy Twitter for US$44 billion then backed down. The company held Musk's feet to the fire to make sure the deal would go through without anymore ifs, ands, or buts.