Earlier this week, reports emerged that Chinese leaders are viewing the world’s richest user and casual adviser to Donald Trump, Elon Musk, as a suitable client for TikTok, which will be banned in the United States starting tomorrow. TikTok called those reports “pure fiction. ” However, TikTok CEO Shou Chew will be with Musk and other political and business heavyweights at Trump’s inauguration on Monday. Chinese Vice President Han Zheng will also be in the audience, being the first time a Chinese leader will attend the swearing-in of an American president.
Although Musk has sided with Trump since the November election, he has been unwavering in the face of China’s ruling political elegance for more than a decade, as his 213 million fans at X can attest. Forbes analyzed Musk’s comments on China over a dozen years and through 110 tweets. Publications poised to play a central role in U. S. policymaking. over the next 4 years, either as an adviser to Trump or as head of DOGE, a new organization tasked with cutting U. S. spending.
Initially, before Tesla had business there, Musk was cruel to China, but he replaced its brain once he started pressuring the country’s leaders to build a huge Tesla factory in Shanghai. Although he has never discussed Chinese President Xi Jinping’s call, nor has he commented on debatable issues such as the internment of Uyghur ethnic minorities in China’s Xinjiang province, he touches on similar issues to his companies, Tesla and SpaceX. In dozens of tweets, Musk praised the infrastructure and high-speed rail system, praised its area program, praised its green energy policies and encouraged his supporters to make a stopover in the country. On two occasions, he replied to or tagged accounts posted on Chinese state media.
Musk has rarely spoken about China’s political regime. Forbes uncovered only two instances of particular criticism, both from 2012: one article criticized China and Russia for vetoing a U. N. solution calling for the resignation of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, while another accused China. to hide a crisis in their real country. genuine real estate sector. On two other occasions, in 2019 and 2022, Musk denounced Chinese government policies that impacted Tesla’s business (subsidies to domestic automakers and zero-covid restrictions) without blatantly criticizing the authorities.
Musk’s courtship of Chinese leaders began as early as October 2015, when, on a stopover at Beijing’s Tsinghua University, he demonstrated that he was negotiating with the government to open a plant. At the same time, he began to win China’s affection publicly on Twitter. In late 2016, he congratulated China on the launch of a heavy-lift rocket, tagging the Twitter account of the Chinese Communist Party’s official state news agency. When a second rocket launch failed, he expressed sympathy for the developers and rebutted a user who took advantage of Chinese production capabilities. “China’s progress in complex infrastructure is more than a hundred times faster than that of the United States,” Musk later claimed.
His pro-China sentiment is consistent with his skepticism toward President Donald Trump. After first joining Trump’s Business Advisory Council, Musk announced his departure in June 2017 following Trump’s decision to withdraw the United States from the Paris climate accords. He then invoked China. as a positive counterpoint to the United States: as much blank electrical energy until 2030 as the United States produces today, from all sources,” Musk tweeted.
A few months later, in March 2018, when Trump suggested China reduce the U. S. industry deficit, Musk, who was then struggling to keep Tesla afloat, responded in a series of messages, complaining about uneven industrial regulations between the two countries. “[A] U. S. car going to China will pay 25% import duties, but a Chinese car coming to the U. S. it will only pay 2. 5%,” Musk said. In addition, no U. S. automaker is allowed to own even 50% of its own factory in China, yet there are five 100 percent Chinese-owned EV manufacturers in the U. S. Despite his concerns, Musk said he was optimistic. “China has already shown its willingness to open its markets and will do the right thing. “
Trump never responded to Musk’s request, but China did when President Xi Jinping announced he would scale back car import duties four weeks later, prompting public praise from Musk. Then, in July 2018, Tesla signed a deal with the Chinese government to build its factory in Shanghai and secured low-interest loans from Chinese state-owned banks to help finance construction. Tesla has become the first foreign automaker to retain 100 percent ownership of its Chinese subsidiary.
To seal the deal, Musk worked intensively with Li Qiang, a senior official from Shanghai who in 2023 was promoted to prime minister of China, with Xi Jinping being the only president in the Chinese Communist Party’s hierarchical order. “Just finished an incredible three-day stopover in China,” Musk tweeted, jubilant over the deal, adding that he enjoyed a “deeply engaging discussion” with then-Chinese Vice President Array Wang Qishan, who was once the man of trust of the Communist Party. . anti-corruption campaign.
“The Chinese state has enormous regulatory powers. Being at least publicly cooperative is a quite common approach,” says Scott Kennedy, a China expert at the Center for Strategic & International Studies.
Chinese Premier Li Qiang meets with Elon Musk, chief executive of U. S. automaker Tesla, in Beijing, capital of China, on April 28, 2024.
The Shanghai factory, opened in December 2019, was a big boost to Tesla’s business. Since then, its sales in China have increased sevenfold. In 2024, Chinese consumers bought 36. 7% of all Tesla cars, making China the company’s largest market, even ahead of the United States. The factory, which also exports cars to other countries, produces more than a portion of all Tesla vehicles. Lower hard work and input prices in China have boosted Tesla’s operating margins, propelling its stock – and Musk’s fortune – to new heights.
“I cannot underestimate the importance of the Chinese market for Tesla, now and in the future, especially now that the United States and Europe are slowing or reviewing subsidies and other measures of this nature for the adoption of electric vehicles,” says Tu Le. , which runs the consulting firm Sino Auto Insight. “It is their key market, not only from a sales attitude but also from a production attitude. “
While benefiting Tesla, China’s support of Musk’s ambition was also a strategic move to help boost the country’s domestic electric vehicle industry. Tesla’s demand for materials spurred the development of suppliers, such as CATL, which has since become the world’s largest battery supplier. Tesla’s market share in China has dipped in recent years, especially to BYD, which is now the world’s largest EV manufacturer.
“It created a huge synergy,” Kennedy says. “This has been a blessing for Tesla and a blessing for China’s electric vehicle industry. “
During the 2024 presidential campaign, when Musk embraced the Republican Party and then Trump, his pro-China perspectives led him to clash with parts of the MAGA coalition, specifically on the sensitive issue of immigration. “Immigrants from China and other Asian countries have made contributions to the United States,” Musk tweeted in February 2023, reacting to a news report about the increase in Chinese immigrants illegally crossing the US-Mexico border. Last March, when his long-time DOGE partner Vivek Ramaswamy lamented the U. S. military’s dependence on China for raw materials, Musk retorted: “The United States and China are incredibly dependent on each other. ” Ramaswamy said in The past on his podcast that Musk would “jump around like a circus monkey when Xi Jinping called when necessary. ”
Musk has tamped down his China praise since Trump’s election victory, but on Wednesday, he took time out of schedule to shout a Chinese social media influencer who happens to look just like him. “I love my Chinese alter-ego ?,” Musk tweeted.