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 Occasion 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 navy.

The letter, obtained by CNBC and first reported by Forbes, claimed that by not making Starshield accessible to U.S. navy forces in Taiwan, SpaceX might violate its Pentagon contract, which requires “world entry” to Starshield expertise.

“I perceive, nonetheless, that SpaceX is probably withholding broadband web providers in and round Taiwan — probably in breach of SpaceX’s contractual obligations with the U.S. authorities,” 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 towards 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 ready to make use of Starshield regardless of the Pentagon’s stipulation of world entry: “A number of sources have disclosed to the Committee that Starshield is inactive in and round 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.

“Within the occasion of CCP navy aggression towards Taiwan, American servicemembers within the Western Pacific could be put at extreme threat,” learn the letter. “Making certain sturdy communication networks for U.S. navy personnel on and round Taiwan is paramount for safeguarding U.S. pursuits within the Indo-Pacific area.”

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 facility in Shanghai whereas different international automakers in China had been required to ascertain joint ventures.

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

“I believe I’ve obtained a reasonably good understanding as an outsider of China,” Musk mentioned on the All-In Podcast. “From their standpoint, perhaps it’s analogous to Hawaii or one thing like that, like an integral a part of China that’s arbitrarily not a part of China.”

“Hear up, #Taiwan shouldn’t be a part of the #PRC & definitely not on the market,” Taiwan’s Minister of International 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.

This story is growing. Please verify again for updates.

Learn the complete letter right here: