Bhubaneswar: Politics makes strange connections. In the year 2025, few pairings are stranger such as China and Elon Musk. Donald Trump and Elon Musk were BFFs once upon a time. Now the two are battling over Trump’s new bill. Musk threatens to build his own new political party and Trump is looking to deport him. China has chosen a side in this fight by backing Elon Musk.
On Weibo, a Chinese social media platform, a new hashtag has gone viral which says #MuskWantsToBuildAnAmericaParty. This hashtag has over 37 million views on Weibo. Chinese netizens rooting for Elon Musk to build a new political party in America against Trump. The popularity of Elon Musk in China is not accidental. Musk has been quoting China for years and Beijing has returned the favor. There has been strategic business deals. A lot of cultural embrace and flattery from both sides.
Back in 2019, Elon Musk opened Tesla’s Shanghai Giga factory. This was the company’s first plant outside the US and first for China. The first time China allowed a foreign car company to operate without a local partner. As a result, 1.4 billion dollars in loans in Chinese state banks reduced taxes, a booming EV market hungry for Tesla’s cheap labour and manufacturing costs. Today, more than half of Tesla’s cars are made in China, 40% of its battery supply chains run through Chinese firms. Elon Musk has opened a second a factory in Shanghai. So the financial fate of Tesla and Musk is deeply intertwined with China. It reflects on Musk’s comments too. He has a comment on every country and their governments. He criticizes democracy around the world. He meddles in elections in Europe. He lectures Australia and UK. But when it comes to China, he is silent, no advice on upholding human rights, no criticism on their politics. Rather Elon Musk praises Chinese workers for burning the 3 a.m. oil and opposes decoupling from China. When asked about Taiwan, Musk compares it to Hawaii by saying Taiwan is a part of China just like Hawaii is for US.
Must and China are tight knit. It works for Musk’s business. But here, China gets leverage out of this. The Tesla CEO is a growing influence on Washington’s politics. He has big companies, social media platforms. He is too big to be ignored and too rich to cancel. So he is the wild card. Elon Musk does not call Jinping’s name on national television. He is becoming an unlikely asset in China’s global playbook.
-OdishaAge
