Elon Musk Offers Proposal To Resolve China-Taiwan Tensions

Billionaire and Tesla CEO, Elon Musk, has offered a new proposal to resolve China-Taiwan tensions, days after suggesting an idea to end the war between Russia and Ukraine that drew condemnation from Ukrainians, including the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy. 

Musk has suggested that tensions between China and Taiwan could be resolved by handing over some control of Taiwan to China. In an interview with the Financial Times, he said, "My recommendation would be to figure out a special administrative zone for Taiwan that is reasonably palatable, probably won't make everyone happy. I think they could have an arrangement that's more lenient than Hong Kong.”

In the interview, Musk also said that conflict over Taiwan was inevitable and warned of its potential impact on not only Tesla, an American multinational automotive company, but also on iPhone maker Apple Inc and the economy as a whole.

Musk’s Tesla electric car company operates a large factory in Shanghai, China’s biggest city and a global financial hub. The factory accounted for about half of Tesla's global deliveries last year.

China, which democratically ruled Taiwan as one of its provinces, has long vowed to bring Taiwan under its control. However, Taiwan objected to China's sovereignty claims and said that the island's 23 million people can decide its future.

Earlier this week, Musk suggested a plan to end Russia's war in Ukraine. He proposed U.N.-supervised elections in four occupied regions that Russia last week moved to annex after what it called referendums. He suggested that Ukraine permanently cede Crimea to Russia and that Ukraine agree to neutrality. He also asked Twitter users to weigh in on his plan. However, he drew sharp criticism from Ukrainians. 

The Ukrainian President responded to Musk’s plan with his own poll. He wrote on Twitter, "Which @elonmusk do you like more?" He offered two responses: one who supports Ukraine and one who supports Russia.