Elon Musk kicked off day two of his China visit with an appearance at the country’s Commerce and Industry ministries, according to media reports. One of the world’s richest men purportedly left his hotel in the morning flanked by Grace Tao, Tesla's vice president in charge of external communications in China, and Tom Zhu, who was promoted to the position of senior vice president of Tesla’s automotive business in April.
After meeting at the Commerce Ministry with Minister Wang Wentao, Musk proceeded to China’s Ministry of Industry and Information, empowered with regulatory oversight of the automotive industry. Further said to be on Musk's agenda are meetings with a host of other senior Chinese officials, with the trip to be rounded off with a visit to Tesla's Shanghai-based Gigafactory, its first overseas manufacturing plant for electric vehicles (EVs).
Walking the US-China Line
A day earlier, Musk met with Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang, vowing that his electric carmaker would continue to expand operations in China, the world's largest EV market.
"China will continue to unswervingly promote high-level opening up, and is committed to creating a better market-oriented, legalized and internationalized business environment for companies from all over the world, including Tesla," Qin, until December 2022 China's ambassador in Washington, was quoted as saying in a statement issued by the Foreign Ministry.
He added that a "healthy, stable and constructive" Sino-US relationship benefits not only both countries but the entire world.
Elon Musk responded by underscoring that the interests of the US and China were "intertwined like conjoined twins."
Tesla opposes "decoupling and breaking chains, and is willing to continue to expand its business in China and share China's development opportunities," he was quoted as saying.
Hot on the heels of the reports of the Musk-Qin meeting, US markets reacted by registering a close to 5% surge in Tesla’s stock on Tuesday.
Elon Musk's visit to China comes against the backdrop of spriralling tensions that have brought US-China ties to one of their lowest points in decades. Musk's statements, however, have struck a tone quite different from that of the hawks in Washington hell-bent on promoting the "China threat" narrative.
Musk sparked ire in Taipei recently, as he said that there was a "certain inevitability" to Taiwan's reunification with mainland China. The island has been autonomous since the end of the civil war in 1949, however, Beijing has laid out a plan for its eventual reintegration into the PRC under a "One Country, Two Systems" arrangement.
"The official policy of China is that Taiwan should be integrated... One does not need to read between the lines. One can simply read the lines. There’s a certain inevitability to the situation," Musk stated in a May 16 interview.
Earlier this week, Musk also praised Beijing's space programme, tweeting it was “far more advanced” than many realised, after China's state news reported that the country would land people on the moon by the end of this decade.
White-Hot Market
The world's largest market for EVs, with nearly 6 million being sold in 2022, China is a critical market for Tesla, which has been vying for the Chinese buyer with a spate of domestic powerhouses, like BYD, Xpeng, Nio, and Li Auto. China business has accounted for under a third of Tesla's annual sales. However, Musk's visit comes amid an ongoing EV price war, triggered after Tesla opted to slash prices in China late last year. This turned up the heat on the already tense competition. Bearing in mind that China has made clear its goal of converting a majority of vehicles from petroleum-powered to electric-powered or fuel cell-powered by 2035, its small wonder that China's EV market is white-hot.
There have been reports that the Gigafactory is expected to soon start producing a new version of the Model 3. Furthermore, Tesla was rumored to be trying to gain regulatory approval to launch a FSD Beta in China. FSD Beta is a software update - still under development - that allows Tesla cars to drive themselves on city streets. The driver-assist feature under Autopilot and FSD has come up against regulatory approval hurdles. Furthermore, last month, Musk had announced that Tesla would also construct a Superfactory in Shanghai for making EV batteries.