Elon Musk told the FT that Beijing doesn’t want him to sell his Starlink satellite internet service in China. In this photo, Musk talks about Starlink at Mobile World Congress in June 2021.
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BEIJING – Elon Musk told Financial Times The Chinese government doesn’t want him to sell his Starlink satellite internet service in China.
“Musk says Beijing has made it clear that it doesn’t approve recent deployment of Starlink, SpaceX’s satellite communication system, in Ukraine to help the military prevent Russia from cutting off the Internet,” the newspaper said in its latest “Lunch with the FT” column published on Friday.
“He said that Beijing sought assurances that he would not sell Starlink in China,” the article said.
The FT did not say whether Musk agreed to Beijing’s request. Business leaders, CEOs of Tesla and SpaceX, did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.
Musk’s electric car giant Tesla depends on China for more than 20% of sales and has a big factory in Shanghai.
Contrary to the US and other countries condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine this year, China has refused to call the attack an invasion.
In recent years, China has put more emphasis on building its own technology, even in space.
Domestic telecom giants, such as Chinese phone and Huawei, have helped China achieve one of the highest levels of 5G Internet penetration in the world.
Add Doa, China completes its own satellite communication system, Beidou, by 2020. This system competes with US government GPS or the Global Positioning System.
China’s Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.
The FT said Musk hopes Tesla will get into an “inevitable” conflict over Taiwan, but still be able to deliver to customers in China.
Beijing considers the self-governing democratic island part of its territory and has repeatedly stated its goal of peaceful reunification.
Musk said his recommendation “would be to find a special and reasonable administrative district for Taiwan, which probably won’t make everyone happy,” the FT reported.
When asked in response to Musk’s recommendation on Taiwan, a spokesperson for China’s foreign ministry said: “We remain committed to the fundamental principle of peaceful reunification and One Country, Two Systems. and aim to work with sincerity and best efforts to achieve peace.
“At the same time, we will resolutely defeat efforts to pursue the ‘Taiwan independence’ secessionist agenda, repel interference by outside forces, and protect sovereignty and territorial integrity.” ours,” the spokesperson said Saturday at a regular news conference.
Qin Gang, China’s ambassador to the US, thanked Musk for the idea in a tweet.
Read the full FT interview here.
– Arjun Kharpal of CNBC contributed to this report.
