Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Mao Ning Photo: Ministry of Foreign Affairs

On the premise of ensuring national sovereignty, security and development interests, the island of Taiwan can exercise a high degree of autonomy as a special administrative region, Mao Ning, a spokesperson for China's Foreign Ministry, said on Sunday in response to Elon Musk's "suggestion" that tensions across the Taiwan Straits could be resolved by figuring out a special administrative zone for the island.

"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 the Financial Times in an interview published on Friday. "And it's possible, and I think probably, in fact, that they could have an arrangement that's more lenient than Hong Kong."

As a response, Mao said on Sunday that the root cause of the current tension and unrest across the Taiwan Straits is the provocative move of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) by "seeking independence" with external forces. 

"Only by resolutely containing the 'Taiwan independence' secessionists and opposing external interference can maintain peace and stability across the Taiwan Straits," said the spokesperson.

Mao stressed that peaceful reunification and "one country, two systems" are the basic principles for resolving the Taiwan question and the best way to achieve national reunification.

China's reunification will not harm the legitimate interests of any country, Mao said. It will only bring more development opportunities to all countries and inject more positive energy into the prosperity of the Asia-Pacific region and the world at large. "We hope and are happy to see more and more people understand and support peaceful reunification and 'one country, two systems,'" Mao noted.

Chiu Chui-cheng, a deputy head of the Mainland Affairs Council of Taiwan, said in a text message on Saturday that the island wouldn't accept the proposal put forward by Musk.

Mao said that the relevant remarks made by the DPP authorities are not worth refuting at all. "No matter what the DPP authorities say, they cannot change the basic fact that 'Taiwan island is an inalienable part of China's territory," she said.

Qin Gang, Chinese Ambassador to the US, also made comments about Musk's "suggestion" on his Twitter account on Sunday. "I would like to thank [Elon Musk] for his call for peace across the Taiwan Strait and his idea about establishing a special administrative zone for Taiwan. Actually, Peaceful reunification and One Country, Two Systems are our basic principles for resolving the Taiwan question," Qin said.