October 11, 2022

Taiwan Unimpressed With Elon Musk's Advice

Elon Musk's suggestion Taiwan should bow to China's will has led to backlash.

Australia's SBS News, October 10, 2022, reports: 

"...Elon Musk's comments over the weekend on both the China-Taiwan dispute and the war in Ukraine have fueled another Twitter storm and ire from politicians, while community leaders in Australia claim the billionaire's thoughts were both inappropriate and "embarrassing".

The Tesla and SpaceX CEO, thought to be the world's richest person, on [October 8, 2022] told the Financial Times that allowing China some control over Taiwan would help to resolve the cross-strait dispute.

...Yi-Tsun Chen, president of Taiwanese Assoc of Canberra [Taiwan's defacto Embassy], said the comments led him to believe Mr Musk was an "idiot". He said Mr Musk failed to understand that Taiwan had grown apart from China and has now developed it's own unique culture..."

"Tesla has received special treatment and strong government support in China, gaining perks such as tax breaks, cheap financing, the ability to wholly own its Chinese operations, and assistance in building its Shanghai factory (Giga Shanghai) at breakneck speed.[244] 

During the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Bloomberg, one Tesla executive said, "Tesla didn't just have a green light from the [Chinese] government to get back to work—it had a flashing-sirens police escort."[244]

Musk has frequently praised China, a controversial stance due to deteriorating U.S.–Chinese relations, China's ongoing persecution of Uyghurs, and alleged human rights abuses in Hong Kong.[245] James McGregor, chairman for Greater China at APCO Worldwide, said that foreign companies in China under Chinese Communist Party general secretary Xi Jinping need to "be aware that the ultimate plan is for all the advanced technologies to be Chinese."[245] McGregor added, "I hope that Elon is going in there with both eyes open."[245]

In August 2020, Congressional negotiators (led by then-U.S. Senator Cory Gardner) highlighted Tesla's ties to China as a potential national security risk for the United States.[246][247]

In July 2021, Bloomberg Businessweek reported on Tesla's "fall from grace" in China due to data collection and safety issues. Tesla reportedly asked the Chinese government to censor criticism of Tesla on social media.[248]"

2 comments:

  1. Gessler10/13/2022 5:59 PM

    Hi Pete,

    The Biden White House has just released its National Security Strategy document, linking below:

    https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Biden-Harris-Administrations-National-Security-Strategy-10.2022.pdf

    It's all along expected lines, but all the same, the section "Out-Competing China & Constraining Russia" under "Part-III: Our Global Priorities" as well as the Indo-Pacific section under "Part-IV: Our Strategy by Region" are worth a read.

    Cheers

    ReplyDelete
  2. Pete10/14/2022 11:16 PM

    Thanks Gessler

    I've taken your advise on https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Biden-Harris-Administrations-National-Security-Strategy-10.2022.pdf regarding Parts III and IV

    and turned the most interesting bits into article
    "US National Security Strategy 2022: Key Parts" of October 14, 2022 at https://gentleseas.blogspot.com/2022/10/national-security-strategy-2022-key.html

    Cheers Pete

    ReplyDelete

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