Cheerleader for China and Trump: can Elon Musk have it all?

As Elon Musk has drawn closer to Donald Trump, so Chinese state media have stepped up their praise of the tech billionaire. He is “a character straight out of science fiction” able to turn futuristic ideas into reality, said Global Times, quoting a prominent Chinese sci-fi writer who lauded Musk’s plans to colonise Mars. China Daily said Tesla may soon be allowed to operate its own telecommunications infrastructure in China, bringing the deployment of Autopilot, an advanced driver-assistance system, a step closer.
Beijing has invested heavily in its relationship with Musk, lavishing praise and benefits unavailable to most foreign investors — to the point where Tesla is now heavily dependent on China as a market and production base. In return, Musk has become one of Beijing’s biggest cheerleaders in the West. The self-described “free speech absolutist” rarely utters a word of criticism of Beijing — instead echoing Chinese Communist Party (CCP) talking points on subjects ranging from tariffs to Taiwan and artificial intelligence. It is a relationship that is about to be sorely tested.
China almost certainly sees Musk as an important asset in Trump’s court. When the Tesla boss exchanged dreams of Mars for the top table at Mar-a-Lago last week, spending “nearly every day” with the president-elect at his Florida resort, his presence amid a swath of China hawks will have been one of the few encouraging signs for Beijing.
Musk was made co-head of a new department of government efficiency, but he will need no reminding that, for Tesla, efficiency depends a great deal on Beijing favour — and those favours can be withdrawn at any time. If Trump imposes 60 per cent tariffs on Chinese-made imports, as threatened, and steps up the trade war more broadly, Musk stands to be one of the biggest losers from the fallout. Rarely has anybody so close to political power been so conflicted.
Musk has enjoyed the sort of access in Beijing that most western political leaders can only dream about. In April, when he last visited, he was whisked to meet Li Qiang, the country’s premier since March 2023, from whom he reportedly won concessions on the use of self-driving software in China — something that is critical for the future of the company. Tesla also broke ground on a vast new battery manufacturing plant in Shanghai. It is close to the company’s existing car plant, which produces one million electric vehicles (EVs) a year and is the company’s most important export hub, responsible for more than half of its sales.
China is also central to Tesla’s domination in Europe. It is the biggest-selling EV brand in Europe, and the largest source of EV imports from China. It sold 241,173 cars in Europe during the first nine months of 2024. Most of its model Ds came from China, while its Model Y is the best-selling EV in Europe and production is split between Shanghai and Berlin, but the company does not provide a breakdown.
“Honoured to meet with Premier Li Qiang,” Musk enthused on X. “We have known each other for many years.” In 2018, when he was the CCP’s boss in Shanghai, Li eased Tesla’s way into the city. The factory was approved and built at astonishing speed — constructed in under a year and aided by tax breaks from Beijing and cheap loans from Chinese state-owned banks. The company was provided with subsidised batteries, allowed to wholly own its Chinese operations and even permitted to begin production before securing all its permits. Tesla has pledged to source more components and set up data centres locally, and to establish its first vehicle innovation research centre outside the US.
“China rocks,” declared Musk, praising the “smart, hard-working people of China”, whom he contrasted with “complacent” and “entitled” Americans. During the disruption of Covid lockdowns, the authorities helped Tesla keep running, bussing in workers from secure dormitories and ensuring a generous supply of masks and other protective gear. While Musk criticised “fascist” lockdowns in America, he had nothing to say about those in China, which were the world’s most draconian. Instead, he thanked Beijing for its “support and protection”.
Beijing’s goal in bringing one of the world’s most innovative companies to China was not hard to see: it hastened the development of local supply chains and galvanised a high-tech industry that the CCP wants to lead the world. This has worked so well, however, that China’s EV sector is threatening to devour the company that helped create it: the Chinese giant BYD, once mocked by Musk for poor technology and ugly cars, is now challenging Tesla for global supremacy.
Musk has said that Beijing is “on team humanity” as regards artificial intelligence, even though the CCP has declared that AI should adhere to “core socialist values” and there is evidence of it being harnessed for disinformation, surveillance and cyber spying. He has also claimed that Taiwan is an “integral part” of China — and when Tesla opened a showroom in Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang province, where the CCP has been accused of slavery and genocide, Musk was accused of complicity in the repression of the Uighur people. The Tesla boss reportedly said there are “two sides” to China’s repression of the Uighurs.
When Musk made a rare mis-step in the eyes of the Beijing authorities — reposting to X what appeared to be an endorsement of the theory that the pandemic might have originated with a leak from a Wuhan lab — state media warned him against “‘breaking the pot of China”, a saying akin to “biting the hand that feeds you”.
During Xi Jinping’s visit to the US last November, Musk posted a photograph of himself shaking hands with the Chinese president. It was captioned: “May there be prosperity for all.” China’s foreign ministry praised Musk for opposing trade decoupling and cutting off supply chains. Yet China hawks in Trump’s incoming administration, such as national security adviser Mike Waltz and secretary of state Marco Rubio, regard China as an existential threat and are intent on intensifying the pressure.
The wild card is Trump himself. Rather like Musk, he is transactional and unpredictable. During his first term as president, he reversed sanctions on the Chinese telecoms giant ZTE after a call from Xi. The president-elect has also flip-flopped on the banning of TikTok, which he now opposes. And he has tempered hardline comments on Chinese trade by boasting of friendship with Xi and expressing admiration for the “iron fist” with which he rules.
Many western business leaders see Musk as a potential bridge with Chinese policy makers. Certainly, markets have been impressed: Tesla shares soared nearly 40 per cent in the week following the US election. But others believe it is only a matter of time before Musk falls out with other members of the Trump team, or Trump himself.
It is being reported in the US that Musk is overstaying his welcome in Florida. “He’s trying to make President Trump feel indebted to him. And the president is indebted to no one,” said one anonymous insider. Another described the tech billionaire as “the guest who wouldn’t leave”. There are already those seemingly determined to make Mar-a-Lago somewhat less hospitable for Musk than life on Mars.
Ian Williams’ new book, Vampire State: The Rise and Fall of the Chinese Economy, was published by Birlinn on September 5