Drive an hour exterior China’s business capital Shanghai, and you may attain Elon Musk’s Tesla gigafactory.
It manufactures virtually a million Tesla vehicles a yr and produces greater than half of all its vehicles worldwide.
However with US president-elect Donald Trump getting ready to maneuver into the White Home, the relationship between his new buddy Elon Musk and the management of China‘s Communist Occasion is in sharp focus.
Tesla’s Shanghai gigafactory. Pic: Lex Ramsay
Shanghai has been the important thing to Tesla’s success, largely due to town’s former Communist Occasion secretary, now China’s premier, Li Qiang.
Chief govt of Shanghai-based Auto Mobility Restricted, Invoice Russo, says: “Qiang is China’s quantity two individual. His place in Shanghai made every little thing attainable for Tesla.”
He added: “In 2017, China adjusted its coverage pointers for the automotive business to permit international firms to personal their factories in China.
Musk, Trump and China defined
“Tesla signed its deal in 2018, broke floor in 2019, and began producing the Mannequin 3 in 2020.”
The manufacturing facility opened at breakneck converse and in report time.
In April, Musk met Qiang in Beijing, later posting on X: “Honoured to satisfy with Premier Li Qiang. We have now recognized one another now for a few years, since early Shanghai days.”
Elon Musk met Chinese language premier Li Qiang in Beijing in April 2024. Pic: AP
The Musk-China ties go all the best way to the highest.
When China’s President Xi Jinping visited the US in November 2023 he met Musk, who posted: “Might there be prosperity for all” – echoing the language usually utilized by China’s authorities.
Learn extra:
Tommy Robinson ‘won’t be joining’ Reform UK, says Farage – after support from Musk
Musk says right-wing AfD party is Germany’s ‘last spark of hope’
Inside a Tesla showroom in Shanghai. Pic: Lex Ramsay
Musk has beforehand weighed into the controversy over the standing of Taiwan. Two years in the past, he advised tensions could possibly be eased by giving China some management over Taiwan.
This remark incensed Taiwan’s leaders.
Chinese language commentator Einar Tangen, from the Taihe Institute in Beijing, says: “If Musk had mentioned anything, he might face motion in opposition to the Shanghai crops. He isn’t going to hazard that. He is taking part in each side for his personal benefit.”
What’s in it for China?
Musk wants China, and within the months to return, China may have Musk.
He might act as a well-connected intermediary between the Chinese language Communist Occasion and Trump, within the face of a possible world commerce conflict.
“Prefer it or not, we live in a world the place China is the dominant participant within the race to an electrical future,” says Russo.
Musk pioneered the EV business in China, however is now struggling to compete with native automobile manufacturers like BYD and Nio.
Elon Musk’s assist helped propel Donald Trump to a second time period within the White Home. Pic: AP
The relationship between Musk and Trump could become volatile, however for now, Musk stands to profit.
“Donald Trump has by no means had an issue giving exceptions to buddies,” Tangen says.
“It suits his character, that he can grant pardons and provides favours to the individuals and firms he chooses.”
Musk ‘the pioneer’
Musk is nicely considered a pioneer in China and most of the people converse of him extremely.
Strolling alongside the Bund waterfront space in Shanghai, Benton Tang says: “Tesla actually impacted your complete business right here.
“It pushed individuals to develop and enhance the standard, the design and particularly the value.”
Chinese language car producers like BYD present stiff competitors for Tesla. Pic: Lex Ramsay
Curiosity within the Musk household has additionally gripped China’s on-line neighborhood.
His mom, Maye Musk, regularly visits the nation, the place she has an enormous social media following as a senior-age movie star style icon and endorses a number of Chinese language merchandise together with a mattress model.
Her e-book, A Lady Makes A Plan, has been translated into Chinese language and is a bestseller right here.
Maye Musk. Pic: Reuters
In the meantime, because the countdown to Trump’s inauguration good points tempo, the highlight on the president-elect’s coterie of advisers intensifies.
In the course of the glare is Elon Musk.
China waits to see what that may imply for them.
