Chinese cheer Tesla boss – “Musk for President”

Elon Musk in Beijing

Full schedule: Musk has already met with top politicians and the head of the battery supplier CATL.

(Photo: Reuters)

Beijing On his first trip to the People’s Republic in three years, Elon Musk was celebrated like a star by the Chinese. “He’s an idol,” cheered one user on social media. “If only there were someone like Elon Musk in China.” Others would like the eccentric billionaire to be US President.

The head of the electric car manufacturer Tesla is actually on a working visit to the People’s Republic. The schedule included meetings with China’s foreign, trade and industry ministers and a dinner with Zeng Yuqun, head of major battery supplier CATL.

According to insiders, Musk wants to stop by the Tesla plant in Shanghai in the coming days. In the past few months, despite the political tensions, numerous US top managers have been in Beijing.

Tesla is fighting for market share in China

However, nobody came close to Musk’s popularity among the Chinese population: Neither Tim Cook from Apple, Jamie Dimon from JP Morgan or Laxman Narasimhan from Starbucks. Musk has not yet made a public statement, although he is otherwise very active on Twitter.

The short message service, which he also owns, is banned in China. The Chinese Foreign Ministry quoted the billionaire as saying that the economies of the US and China are “Siamese twins” and he therefore opposes decoupling.

Tesla is suffering from growing competitive pressure from Chinese suppliers such as BYD. It is also unclear whether the US group can expand its plant in Shanghai, where more than half of all Tesla models were produced in 2022.

At the same time, approval from the authorities for advanced driver assistance systems, which Tesla already offers in the USA, is still pending. It initially remained unclear who Musk would meet during his visit to Shanghai and what topics would be on the agenda.

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