Despite the fact that Tesla was founded in the US, received billions of dollars in government subsidies, and has three vehicle factories here, Musk’s relationships with US politicians and regulators have been a disaster. Musk once hung up on the head of the National Transportation Safety Board during a call and intimated that the Securities and Exchange Commission should perform oral sex on him. To democratically elected representatives of the country where Tesla was founded, he pays dust, but when it comes to China, Musk bends the knee to autocratic leadership.
Musk most recently vexed American lawmakers when Tesla announced that it would open a showroom in Xinjiang, the region where the Chinese government is carrying out the genocide of the Uyghur Muslim minority. For years Beijing has sent Uyghurs to reeducation camps and forced them to work at factories run by ethnic Han Chinese moving into the region. Last month, President Joe Biden signed a bill banning all imports from Xinjiang, and calls are growing across Europe for governments there to do the same thing.
To blunt the international outrage, Chinese officials have pressured companies around the world to act like everything in Xinjiang is normal. While some American companies, like Apple and Nike, have worked to remove Uyghur forced labor from their supply chains, Tesla went the opposite route, announcing at the end of last year that it would “launch Xinjiang on its electric journey!” This is exactly the type of support Beijing is looking for.