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Jane Cai

While the US presidential election was a competition between Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump, for many Chinese, tech guru Elon Musk was arguably the biggest winner.
Musk, the CEO of electric-vehicle maker Tesla, became one of Trump’s most vocal supporters and could be in the running to be a cabinet member in the next administration.
He is also a household name in China for the Shanghai Gigafactory, Tesla’s biggest factory in the world, and for investing heavily in the country during China’s economic downturn.
The prospect of Musk joining the US cabinet has raised hopes in China that there will be more engagement between Washington and Beijing, with tech billionaires like him playing the role of stabiliser in a strained relationship.
Musk has had the red carpet treatment during his China visits and was also among the first business executives from the US to visit Beijing last year after China lifted its Covid-19 travel curbs.
As the China-US tech war took off, he told then foreign minister Qin Gang that Tesla was opposed to decoupling – the separation of Chinese and Western supply chains.
At a meeting in Beijing in April, Premier Li Qiang went so far as to brand Tesla’s development in China “an example of success” in US-China cooperation.
For James Wu, the owner of a manufacturing company in the eastern province of Jiangsu, Musk’s prominence in US politics is hard to believe.
“I never imagined an entrepreneur could play such a big role in politics,” said Wu, who studied engineering in the US and has been following the election campaign.
“I was really shocked by Musk’s high profile in politics, including his offer of US$1 million a day to a registered voter in key swing states.”
Under the offer, people who signed a pro-US Constitution petition by Musk’s campaign group America PAC would be in the running for the money.
“I understand capital is always behind American politics. But this time, Musk is on the stage and vocal about what he wants – deregulation, a more efficient federal government and fair competition with the government on the distribution of satellite broadband, etc. Entrepreneurs around the world can only dream of such things,” Wu said.


Delivering his victory speech at a gathering in Florida’s Palm Beach on Wednesday, Trump spent considerable time paying tribute to Musk. “We have a new star ... a star is born – Elon!”
“[Elon] is a genius. We have to protect our geniuses, we don’t have many of them,” Trump said.
While he was absent from the event, Musk flooded his 203 million followers on X, previously known as Twitter, with posts supporting Trump.
Hours before Trump declared a victory, Musk was gloating that “the future is gonna be fantastic” and posted a picture of himself photoshopped into the Oval Office.
Under the Trump administration, Musk was expected to enjoy greater freedom to realise his tech and business ambitions in the US or elsewhere, making China less important in the supply chain, Wu said.
“However, the probability of engagement will be higher than that of a comprehensive decoupling,” he said. “Businessmen are always pragmatic.”
Chinese media has been keen to interpret Musk’s role in the election and in the future of the US.
In a Q&A session on Tuesday with the Greater Bay Area Review, a WeChat account run by the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Zheng Yongnian, a professor at the university’s Shenzhen campus, said Musk’s frontline support for a presidential candidate was unprecedented.


He also said the CEO was speaking on behalf of others.
“Musk not only speaks for himself. It’s not only for the development of his Starlink or brain computer interface programs,” Zheng said.
“Some people in Silicon Valley back his moves. They are what China calls the representatives of ‘new productive forces’.
“The move suggests they don’t think the current American political system will work for the future science and tech development.”
In another interview, Yin Zhiguang, a professor at Fudan University in Shanghai, described Musk and his fellow tech entrepreneurs involved in the election campaigns as an “interesting and emerging” force in American politics.
In a Q&A with Guancha.cn, a website by the Shanghai Chunqiu Institute for Development and Strategic Studies, Yin said many of these businesspeople were neoliberals “who do not believe in any country”.
“They believe in themselves and in a utopia constructed by a small group of elites who can work without the constraints imposed by countries,” he said.
Musk has more than 2 million followers on Weibo, a microblogging platform much like X. At least four hashtags concerning Musk, including the guessing game of his fate after the election, have been among the most popular topics in China’s heavily censored social media this week.
“It’s a victory for Musk,” one user wrote. “I was worried he might go to jail for the controversial giveaway. Now I’m curious what position he will get from Trump.”


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China

Diplomacy

Musk is well known in China and has been lauded for his investment in the country


Musk is well known in China and has been lauded for his investment in the country.
