Home China chair calls for Elon Musk present SpaceX web for U.S. troops in Taiwan

The Home Choose Committee on the Chinese language Communist Celebration despatched a letter on Saturday to Elon Musk demanding that U.S. troops stationed in Taiwan get entry to SpaceX’s Starshield, a satellite tv for pc communication community designed particularly for the army.

The letter, obtained by CNBC and first reported by Forbes, claimed that by not making Starshield obtainable to U.S. army forces in Taiwan, SpaceX might violate its Pentagon contract, which requires “global access” to Starshield know-how.

“I understand, however, that SpaceX is possibly withholding broadband internet services in and around Taiwan — possibly in breach of SpaceX’s contractual obligations with the U.S. government,” learn the letter, which was signed by Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Wi., who chairs the Home CCP committee.

The Pentagon awarded SpaceX a one-year contract for Starshield in September, after commissioning SpaceX’s Starlink community months earlier for Ukraine’s warfare in opposition to Russia, which hit the two-year mark on Saturday.

The letter comes after Gallagher led a go to to Taiwan the place he and a delegation of different lawmakers met with Taiwan officers like President Tsai Ing-wen and President-Elect Lai Ching-te.

The letter mentioned that the lawmakers realized that U.S. troops stationed in Taiwan weren’t in a position to make use of Starshield regardless of the Pentagon’s stipulation of world entry: “Multiple sources have disclosed to the Committee that Starshield is inactive in and around Taiwan.”

The letter requests that Musk present the Home committee with a briefing on its Taiwan operations by March 8.

Taiwan has been governing itself independently of China for the reason that island cut up from the mainland in the course of the 1949 civil warfare. China has mentioned it nonetheless lays declare to Taiwan and has repeatedly made clear its intention to reunify the sovereign island with the mainland.

“In the event of CCP military aggression against Taiwan, American servicemembers in the Western Pacific would be put at severe risk,” learn the letter. “Ensuring robust communication networks for U.S. military personnel on and around Taiwan is paramount for safeguarding U.S. interests in the Indo-Pacific region.”

Tesla’s success hinges on favorable enterprise relations with China, which has led Musk, its CEO, to domesticate cozy relations with the nation, regardless of its broader tensions with the U.S. Tesla operates its personal manufacturing unit in Shanghai whereas different international automakers in China had been required to determine joint ventures.

Musk got here under fire from Taiwanese officers final September for seemingly siding with China’s reunification doctrine towards Taiwan, stating that the self-governing island was a vital a part of China.

“I think I’ve got a pretty good understanding as an outsider of China,” Musk mentioned on the All-In Podcast. “From their standpoint, maybe it is analogous to Hawaii or something like that, like an integral part of China that is arbitrarily not part of China.”

“Listen up, #Taiwan is not part of the #PRC & certainly not for sale,” Taiwan’s Minister of Overseas Affairs Jaushieh Joseph Wu wrote on X in response to Musk’s remark.

SpaceX and Musk didn’t instantly reply to a request for touch upon the letter.

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Learn the total letter right here: