Elon Musk says growing belligerence between China and the US 'should be a concern for everyone'

• Elon Musk told CNBC that growing US-China tensions should concern everyone.
• He said US and China are like "conjoined twins" and any fallout would impact the world economy.

Elon Musk is concerned about the intensifying geopolitical tensions between US and China — and he thinks everyone else should be too.

"I think that should be a concern for everyone," Musk told CNBC's David Faber on Tuesday in response to a question about the "growing belligerence between the US and China."

Musk also said there was "some inevitability" about China's move to take control of Taiwan, a self-ruled island that Beijing claims as its territory.

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"The official policy of China is that Taiwan should be integrated," Musk said. "One does not need to read between the lines."

Tensions between the US and China have risen in recent years due to a range of issues: from trade disputes, and China's wide-ranging updates to its anti-espionage law, to strategic competition in technology like chips — for which Taiwan is a critical producer.

US President Joe Biden told CBS 60 Minutes said last September that the US forces would defend Taiwan if China invaded the island.

The situation could get serious and affect the global economy.

"The Chinese economy and the rest of the global economy are like conjoined twins. It would be like trying to separate conjoined twins. That's the severity of the situation," Musk, the CEO of electric vehicle maker Tesla, told Faber.

"And it's actually worse for a lot of other companies than it is for Tesla. I mean, I'm not sure where you're going to get an iPhone, for example."

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, the world's largest contract chipmaker, is a key supplier to Apple.

In a move to diversify its supply chain, Apple has been shifting production previously concentrated in China to other countries including India — but the tech giant is just making just 7% of its iPhones in India now, Bloomberg reported on April 13, citing people familiar with the matter.

Tesla and Musk did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment sent outside regular business hours.