Ever since China lifted most of its pandemic-era journey restrictions in January, overseas executives have been swarming in. And Musk had good cause to go: China is a crucial a part of Tesla’s electric-vehicle empire, each as a market and as a manufacturing powerhouse. However because the proprietor of Starlink, SpaceX, and not too long ago Twitter, Musk has a way more difficult relationship with the nation.
There’s little data in English about Musk’s China journey. That’s primarily as a result of Musk, normally lively on the social media platform he simply acquired, stayed very quiet throughout the entire journey. Whereas Twitter is banned in China, folks have all kinds of VPN instruments to entry it. Nonetheless, Musk didn’t appear to need to give the impression that he was on Twitter whereas there. He solely tweeted a single time in regards to the journey, after he left China. Actually, he even stopped commenting on different tweets—one thing he usually does dozens of instances each day.
However from the general public readouts posted by Chinese language authorities web sites and sightings of Musk shared on Chinese language social media, we will reconstruct his journey from Tuesday to Thursday.
He had fairly a busy itinerary: in 44 hours, Musk met with at the least three high-level Chinese language officers, dined with the CEO of the world’s largest EV battery provider, and visited Tesla’s manufacturing facility in Shanghai, amongst different issues.
Musk’s personal jet landed in Beijing on the afternoon of Might 30, native time. He met with Qin Gang, China’s new overseas minister and former ambassador to the US, the identical day. In line with the ministry’s press launch, Musk mentioned within the assembly that he strongly opposes decoupling provide chains between the US and China, as a result of the 2 international locations are “interlinked, like conjoined twins inseparable from one another.” That night, he had dinner with Zeng Yuqun, the CEO of CATL, which is a key provider of batteries to Tesla vehicles.
CHINESE MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS
The subsequent day, he met with two extra Chinese language ministers, these in control of commerce and know-how. Reuters reported that he additionally visited Vice Premier Ding Xuexiang—China’s sixth-highest-ranking celebration official—that afternoon, however the assembly has not been made public by the federal government or Musk. Within the night, he flew to Shanghai and headed to the Tesla Gigafactory, the place he took pictures with staff that he would later submit on Twitter.
ELON MUSK VIA TWITTER
On the morning of June 1, his final day in China, Musk squeezed in a single final assembly with Chen Jining, the Shanghai celebration secretary, earlier than his jet left for Texas at 11:23 a.m.
Musk shouldn’t be the primary American government to go to China this yr: earlier than him, there have been Apple’s Tim Prepare dinner, Common Motors’s Mary Barra, JP Morgan’s Jamie Dimon, Starbucks’s Laxman Narasimhan, and extra. However to date, Musk has acquired the largest welcome, each from Chinese language authorities officers and from the folks on Chinese language social media.
