After Russia-Ukraine plan, Musk presents a proposal to resolve China-Taiwan tensions

Billionaire Elon Musk has suggested that tensions between China and Taiwan could be resolved by handing over some control of Taiwan to Beijing, days after he raised a possible deal to end the war between Russia and Ukraine that has been condemned in Ukraine.

"My recommendation would be to find a special administrative region for Taiwan that is reasonably acceptable, probably not going to make everybody happy," Musk, the world's richest person, told the Financial Times in an interview published Friday. Musk made the remarks in response to the newspaper's question about China, where his Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) electric car company operates a large factory in Shanghai. Beijing, which says democratically-ruled Taiwan is one of its provinces, has long vowed to bring Taiwan under its control and has not ruled out using force to do so. Taiwan's government strongly opposes China's sovereignty claims and says only the island's 23 million people can decide its future. "It's possible, and I think it's very likely, that they'll do a softer arrangement than Hong Kong," the newspaper quoted Musk as saying. The Shanghai factory handled about half of Tesla's global deliveries last year. Musk also said China wanted assurances that the SpaceX rocket company would not offer its Starlink internet service there. Musk said he thought the conflict over Taiwan was inevitable and warned of its potential impact not only on Tesla but also on iPhone maker Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) and the broader economy. The interview did not elaborate on these remarks. Earlier this week, Musk proposed that Ukraine permanently cede Crimea to Russia, hold new referendums under UN auspices to decide the fate of the Russian-controlled region, and that Ukraine accept neutrality. Asking Twitter users to evaluate his plan, Zelensky faced harsh criticism from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who proposed his own Twitter poll: "Which @elonmusk do you like more, the one who supports Ukraine (or) the one who supports Russia?" Follow Global Economic Developments on Social Media! Click here to follow Ieconomy official Facebook account! Click here to follow Ieconomy official Instagram account! Click here to follow Ieconomy official Twitter account!