Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and X, speaks on the Atreju political convention organized by Fratelli d’Italia (Brothers of Italy), in Rome, Dec. 15, 2023.
Antonio Masiello | Getty Images
The House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party sent a letter on Saturday to SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk demanding that U.S. troops stationed in Taiwan get access to SpaceX’s Starshield, a satellite communication network designed specifically for the military.
The letter, obtained by CNBC and first reported by Forbes, claimed that by not making Starshield available to U.S. military forces in Taiwan, SpaceX could violate its Pentagon contract, which requires “global access” to Starshield technology.
“I understand, nonetheless, that SpaceX is possibly withholding broadband web services in and around Taiwan — possibly in breach of SpaceX’s contractual obligations with the U.S. government,” read the letter, which was signed by Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Wi., who chairs the House CCP committee.
SpaceX on Monday denied any violation of its government contracts.
“SpaceX is in full compliance with all of its U.S. government contracts,” the corporate wrote in a post on X. “SpaceX notified the Select Committee last week that it’s misinformed, however the Committee selected to contact media before in search of additional information.”
The Pentagon awarded SpaceX a one-year contract for Starshield in September, after commissioning SpaceX’s Starlink network months earlier for Ukraine’s war against Russia, which hit the two-year mark on Saturday.
A spokesperson for the Office of the Secretary of Defense said in an email to CNBC on Sunday, “Now we have no statement or information to offer regarding the correspondence at the moment.”
The letter comes after Gallagher led a visit to Taiwan where he and a delegation of other lawmakers met with Taiwan officials like President Tsai Ing-wen and President-Elect Lai Ching-te.
The letter said that the lawmakers learned that U.S. troops stationed in Taiwan weren’t in a position to use Starshield despite the Pentagon’s stipulation of world access: “Multiple sources have disclosed to the Committee that Starshield is inactive in and around Taiwan.”
The letter requests that Musk provide the House committee with a briefing on its Taiwan operations by March 8.
Taiwan has been governing itself independently of China because the island split from the mainland in the course of the 1949 civil war. China has said it still lays claim to Taiwan and has repeatedly made clear its intention to reunify the sovereign island with the mainland.
“Within the event of CCP military aggression against Taiwan, American servicemembers within the Western Pacific could be put at severe risk,” read the letter. “Ensuring robust communication networks for U.S. military personnel on and around Taiwan is paramount for safeguarding U.S. interests within the Indo-Pacific region.”
Tesla’s success hinges on favorable business relations with China, which has led Musk, its CEO, to cultivate cozy relations with the country, despite its broader tensions with the U.S. Tesla operates its own factory in Shanghai while other foreign automakers in China had been required to determine joint ventures.
Musk got here under fire from Taiwanese officials last September for seemingly siding with China’s reunification doctrine toward Taiwan, stating that the self-governing island was a vital a part of China.
“I believe I’ve got a fairly good understanding as an outsider of China,” Musk said on the All-In Podcast. “From their standpoint, perhaps it’s analogous to Hawaii or something like that, like an integral a part of China that’s arbitrarily not a part of China.”
“Listen up, #Taiwan shouldn’t be a part of the #PRC & actually not on the market,” Taiwan’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Jaushieh Joseph Wu wrote on X in response to Musk’s comment.
Read the complete letter here:
