Ever since China lifted most of its pandemic-era journey restrictions in January, international 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. But because the proprietor of Starlink, SpaceX, and just lately Twitter, Musk has a way more sophisticated relationship with the nation.
There’s little info in English about Musk’s China journey. That’s primarily as a result of Musk, normally energetic on the social media platform he simply acquired, stayed very quiet throughout the entire journey. While Twitter is banned in China, individuals have all kinds of VPN instruments to entry it. Still, 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. In reality, he even stopped commenting on different tweets—one thing he usually does dozens of occasions day by day.
But from the general public readouts posted by Chinese authorities web sites and sightings of Musk shared on Chinese social media, we are able to reconstruct his journey from Tuesday to Thursday.
He had fairly a busy itinerary: in 44 hours, Musk met with not less than three high-level Chinese officers, dined with the CEO of the world’s largest EV battery provider, and visited Tesla’s manufacturing unit in Shanghai, amongst different issues.
Musk’s non-public jet landed in Beijing on the afternoon of May 30, native time. He met with Qin Gang, China’s new international minister and former ambassador to the US, the identical day. According to 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 each other.” That night, he had dinner with Zeng Yuqun, the CEO of CATL, which is a key provider of batteries to Tesla automobiles.
CHINESE MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS
The subsequent day, he met with two extra Chinese ministers, these accountable for commerce and expertise. 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. In the night, he flew to Shanghai and headed to the Tesla Gigafactory, the place he took images 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 will not be the primary American govt to go to China this yr: earlier than him, there have been Apple’s Tim Cook, General Motors’s Mary Barra, JP Morgan’s Jamie Dimon, Starbucks’s Laxman Narasimhan, and extra. But to this point, Musk has obtained the largest welcome, each from Chinese authorities officers and from the individuals on Chinese social media.