China’s ambassador to the United States revealed he’d had a “smooth ride” in a Tesla with Elon Musk this week as the billionaire CEO continues to pursue lucrative business in China.
Musk has gone all in on investing in China, even praising the Chinese Communist Party. All the while, the U.S. is relying on another Musk company, SpaceX, to launch satellites and astronauts into space.
Tesla is currently the world’s largest electric vehicle company, and Musk met with China’s top diplomat in the U.S. in California this week.
Chinese Ambassador Qin Gang tweeted out a picture of Musk in the driver seat and himself in the passenger seat Friday, writing, “Took a ride in a @Tesla Model S Plaid on #autopilot. Powerful model, but smooth ride!”
In another tweet, the Chinese diplomat said, “Had an inspiring talk with @ElonMusk today on cars on the road, stars in the sky, research of human brain, meaning of life on earth, and our future into the space. Look up and think beyond!” That message was accompanied by two pictures of the duo — one showed the two sitting across from each other at a business table, with the other showing Qin in the car’s driver seat and Musk in the passenger seat.
Tesla China replied to Qin with its own tweet, saying in Chinese, “Thank you Ambassador Qin Gang, we will continue to work hard.” Tesla included an emoji of a flexing bicep and added, “Look up and think beyond!”
As Musk cozies up to China, the country has repeatedly sought to lay blame for the Ukraine crisis at the feet of the U.S.
Qin tweeted a summary of the call between Chinese General Secretary Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin last week as well as comments from Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who claimed that “China encourages efforts conducive to peaceful settlement of Ukraine crisis.”
Qin also weighed in on Taiwan last week, calling upon the U.S. to “work with China to oppose and contain ‘Taiwan independence’ separatist forces.”
MUSK LAUNCHES TESLA SHOWROOM IN XINJIANG AMIDST UYGHUR GENOCIDE ALLEGATIONS
A New York Times article this week contended that a Western intelligence report “said senior Chinese officials told senior Russian officials in early February not to invade Ukraine before the end of the Winter Olympics in Beijing.” China has denied the accusation.
The outlet also reported last week that senior Biden administration officials held multiple meetings with Chinese leaders in the lead-up to the invasion, with the U.S. showing intelligence demonstrating the increase in Russian troops and asking Beijing to tell the Kremlin to back off. The outlet reported that Chinese officials pushed back, saying China would not block Russia’s efforts, and sided with the Kremlin.
Tesla touted a new car showroom in Xinjiang on Chinese social media on New Year’s Eve, a week after President Joe Biden signed a law banning imports tied to forced labor in the region where the U.S. says the Chinese government is conducting genocide against Uyghur Muslims. The Chinese Embassy in the U.S. posted a statement Friday saying, “If there had been any genocide, how could the Uyghur population have increased so much?”
Tesla will begin building a new Shanghai plant as early as this month, according to sources cited by Reuters, as part of an effort to more than double the company’s production capacity in China.
The Tesla Giga Shanghai facility built roughly 470,000 vehicles last year — roughly half of the cars sold globally last year, according to Inside EVs — and Musk has said he wants that to grow.
The China Passenger Car Association said last month that Tesla sold just under 60,000 Chinese-made vehicles in January alone.
CNBC said Friday that the first electric vehicle using Huawei’s operating system would begin making deliveries in Shanghai on Saturday. The outlet said the Chinese portion of Tesla’s revenue grew to 26% in 2021, up from 12% as recently as 2019.
Musk was asked in December about his thoughts on China during an interview at the Wall Street Journal’s CEO Council Summit.
Musk predicted that “China is probably going to have an economy two to three times the size of the United States” and asserterted that “Tesla has a good relationship with China, and I don’t mean to endorse everything that China does any more than I would, say, endorse everything the United States does, or any country.”
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While he is effusive in his praise for China, Musk does not hesitate to criticize U.S. politicians. As recently as this week, he replied to a Biden tweet praising Ford and GM, tweeting, “Tesla has created over 50,000 US jobs building electric vehicles & is investing more than double GM + Ford combined [fyi to person controlling this twitter].”
