The fault in Musk’s Taiwan logic

TESLA INC CEO Elon Musk, during the All-In podcast’s All-In Summit last week, said that Taiwan is “an integral part of China” and that its status is analogous to Hawaii’s in relation to the US.

Regarding the military standoff across the Taiwan Strait, he said that the US’ military strength in the western Pacific region would eventually be weaker than China’s.

Musk suggested that Taiwan should talk to China about becoming a special region.

Musk is a world-famous entrepreneur whose company has many suppliers and consumers in Taiwan. His achievements in the business world are good, but his analogies echo China’s misinformation campaign.

During the first half of the 1900s, Taiwan was a colony of Japan. Its status became uncertain during the period from Japan’s surrender in 1945 to 1951, when the Treaty of Peace with Japan, also known as the San Francisco Treaty, was signed. In 1945 the US handed Taiwan over to the Republic of China (ROC) government to administer on behalf of the Allied powers. This information can be found in the archives of thenROC president Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) and in letters that Chiang wrote to then-chairman of the Taiwan Provincial Government Chen Cheng (陳誠), all of which are available to the public.

The Treaty of Shimonoseki signed by Japan and the Manchu Qing Dynasty government in 1895 signified that China had fully given up ownership of Taiwan, and later treaties never had anything to do with the People’s Republic of China. Musk should have checked these basic facts instead of talking off the top of his head or believing China’s “united front” narrative.

Even though the US forcefully annexed Hawaii in 1898, its eventual status was decided in 1959 by a referendum in which the Hawaiians decided to be a US state.

However, whenever Taiwan wants to organize a referendum on sovereignty, China always threatens to seize it by force. China has repeatedly said that if there is to be any referendum, its 1.4 billion people should also vote, even though the nation does not have genuine universal suffrage.

When the referendum was held in Hawaii, did the US government point guns at Hawaii and threaten to invade it? China’s bottom line is that it would treat any vote on the issue as a vote for Taiwanese independence, which would lead it to use military force. That is very different from how the US government handled Hawaii’s referendum.

Let us not forget that the entire US fought for Hawaii when it was still a US territory and not yet a state. When Japan attacked Pearl Harbor in Hawaii on Dec. 7, 1941, killing 2,403 people and wounding 1,247, the US immediately declared war on Japan, after which Japan’s allies Germany and Italy declared war on the US. The US thus joined World War II in Europe and Asia, eventually leading to a victory for the Allied powers.

The US took this decisive action without Japan having invaded and occupied Hawaii. If Taiwan is like Hawaii, then why does China keep threatening it by sending its warplanes and warships to fly and sail around it? China does not care about Taiwan’s safety and security. The crisis in the Taiwan Strait has clearly been caused by China, whose market is Musk’s actual concern.

I would like to remind Musk that although Tesla’s sales in China and its factory in Shanghai have generated a lot of income, he should remember who helped him at the beginning. In 2005, when Tesla was in its infancy, no big factories were willing to supply the components it needed. It was with the help of Taiwan’s Ministry of Economic Affairs that Tesla found Taiwanese companies willing to contribute to the manufacturing of Tesla’s electric motors. These companies created many exclusive technologies to meet Tesla’s needs, laying a solid foundation for the electric vehicle market. Without Taiwan’s help in producing those key components, Tesla would never have gotten off the ground. Taiwanese remember where they come from, and our determination to uphold our national sovereignty leaves no room for compromise.

Musk might not know much about Taiwan’s political development, but our opposition to China’s proposal of “one country, two systems” transcends ideology. Even former president Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國) did not accept the idea of “one country, two systems,” and neither have any of the elected presidents who came after. We are all clear that Taiwan would not follow the path of Hong Kong. Our democracy was won through a series of struggles, not bequeathed from on high.

China might still be willing to tolerate Tesla, but Musk should bear in mind that when you do business under a dictatorial communist regime, your property can easily be confiscated for no particular reason. Jack Ma (馬雲), the founder of China’s Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, knows this all too well. If China treats its own people like that, how long would it go on tolerating a foreign entrepreneur like Musk? Hopefully Musk would not wait until things turn sour to remember how well Taiwan has treated him.

Chiu Chih-wei is a Democratic Progressive Party legislator.