American billionaire and X owner Elon Musk angered Taiwan on Thursday for calling the self-ruled island "an integral part" of China.
Musk made the remarks while comparing Taiwan to the US state of Hawaii in a podcast.

Musk "blindly flatters China and if (his) comments are made out of commercial interests, such comments are not worthy of being taken seriously and the speaker does not deserve respect," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Jeff Liu told reporters.

"We don't know if Musk's free will is for sale but Taiwan is not for sale, that's for sure," he said.

Musk has sparked anger in Taiwan before, most recently in May for saying China will inevitably integrate Taiwan.

"The official policy of China is that Taiwan should be integrated… One does not need to read between the lines," he told CNBC in an interview.
"There is a certain inevitability to the situation," Musk said.

Beijing claims Taiwan as its own territory awaiting "reunification" and has intensified pressure since independence-leaning Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen came to power in 2016.

The policy was again manifested by the war games conducted by the Chinese navy near Taiwan.

Dozens of Chinese warplanes and 10 navy ships were detected around Taiwan between Wednesday morning and Thursday morning, the island's defense ministry said on Thursday after warning that Beijing was conducting air and sea drills in the Western Pacific.