• China’s ambassador to the United States thanked billionaire Elon Musk for suggesting a special administration zone for Taiwan.
• But he also emphasized Beijing’s call for “peaceful reunification” and “one country, two systems” for the island.
• Musk suggested that tensions between China and Taiwan could be eased by giving Beijing some control over Taiwan.

China’s ambassador to the United States thanked billionaire Elon Musk for suggesting a special administration zone for Taiwan, but he also emphasized Beijing’s call for “peaceful reunification” and “one country, two systems” for the island.

A few days after talking about a possible deal to end the war between Russia and Ukraine, which was criticised in Ukraine, Musk suggested that tensions between China and Taiwan could be eased by giving Beijing some control over Taiwan.

“My recommendation . . .  would be to figure out a special administrative zone for Taiwan that is reasonably palatable, probably won’t make everyone happy,” Musk told  in an interview published on Friday.

Musk was answering a question about China, where a large factory for his Tesla  electric car company is located.

Beijing has said for a long time that Taiwan is one of its provinces, and it has not ruled out using force to take control of Taiwan. Taiwan’s government, which is democratically run, strongly disagrees with China’s claims of sovereignty and says that only the 23 million people who live on the island can decide what will happen to it.

In tweets posted on Saturday, Chinese ambassador to the United States Qin Gang wrote: “I would like to thank @elonmusk for his call for peace across the Taiwan Strait and his idea about establishing a special administrative zone for Taiwan.”