What a dilemma. Whether to disrespect—and maybe, one day soon, openly criticize—a totalitarian dictator on Twitter or hold your fire to appease both Xi Jinping and Tesla executives very well aware that “availability [of one’s product in China] is subject to government approval” (“Elon Musk, With Tesla Factories in China, Tweets AI Video of Chinese President Xi Jinping Wearing Pooh Clothes,” Yahoo Finance, July 22, 2024).
Everything is “subject to government approval” in China, a place where companies like Musk’s Tesla must, in order to operate, look the other way whenever they notice evils committed by the Chinese Communist Party.
It’s not all that easy, either, to function successfully in the United States while being vocal in public forums—just ask Musk, arbitrarily targeted for this and that by the U.S. government for committing the twin sins of being a big target and having a big mouth.
But there are more processes and impediments that the American government has to go through to smash Musk and his companies than Xi would have to bother with if Musk and Tesla provoke his ire.
Tesla is driving on rocky ground in China, where sales have slumped and its availability is subject to government approval.
So it’s head-scratching that Tesla CEO Elon Musk posted an AI video that disrespects Chinese President Xi Jinping on the social media platform X-formerly-Twitter, which should drive other Tesla execs with any shred of common sense into a fit of worry….
Tesla critic Brad Munchen tweeted about Musk’s video and raised the big money implications for Tesla’s bottom line.
“Winnie the Pooh memes are banned in China because they’re an insult to Xi Jinping who some say looks like Pooh,” he posted. “China is where $TSLA built its most profitable factory, which generated 70% of global profits in 2023. One must be on drugs to tweet something this reckless.”
And he’s right. Tesla’s Shanghai factory has supplanted the Fremont, California Tesla factory as the company’s largest and most productive facility, according to The New York Times.
We can’t begin to explain why would Musk shoot himself in the foot, but this behavior seems par the course for the mercurial billionaire, who often seems drawn to conflict even when it’s clearly bad for his own interests.
Is there anybody who can tell Musk the hard truths about his online behavior and how it may impact his businesses?
Yeah, big mystery. Here’s my theory: a spasm of a conscience penetrating the husk of “common sense” on how to make nice with and continuously enable the dictator. Video of Xi in silly pajamas today, tomorrow maybe a frank admission that there is only one side to the question of whether China’s vicious targeting of the Uyghurs, the Tibetans, Falun Gong, Taiwan, Hong Kong, etc., are unambiguously evil. Best if combined with Tesla’s exit from China.
Also see:
StopTheChinazis.org: “Are There, per Elon Musk, ‘Two Sides’ to the Uyghur Genocide?”
StopTheChinazis.org: “Will Elon Musk Provide Satellite Internet to US Military in Taiwan?”
StopTheChinazis.org: “Should Musk Obtain Mapping Data to Shed Light on His Moral Route?”
