China has called for “stable and constructive” ties with the US in a meeting with Elon Musk that highlighted the complex relationship between Beijing and the billionaire boss of Tesla, Twitter and SpaceX.
In a statement, the Chinese foreign ministry quoted Musk, who arrived in Beijing on Tuesday for his first visit since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, as comparing US-China interests to conjoined twins and as saying Tesla opposed “decoupling” of the world’s two biggest economies.
Musk, one of the world’s richest men and a powerful figure in the auto sector, social media and space industry, has a complicated relationship with China, which is Tesla’s biggest non-US market and a vital part of the supply chain for its electric cars.