Elon Musk's business ties to China draw scrutiny after Twitter purchase [View all]

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https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/elon-musks-business-ties-china-draw-scrutiny-twitter-purchase-rcna26057

Elon Musk’s business ties to China draw scrutiny after Twitter purchase
The Tesla CEO has built a close relationship with Chinese officials.
April 29, 2022, 1:11 PM CDT
By Louise Matsakis

China is Tesla’s second-largest market, responsible for producing around half its cars and generating more than a quarter of its revenue. In 2019, Tesla became the first foreign automaker to open an independent factory in China, which was recently selected by Shanghai authorities as one of 600 businesses that could reopen during a Covid lockdown in the city. Tesla secured roughly $1.6 billion in loans from Chinese banks to finance the project, and has also received a $1.8 billion investment from Tencent, one of China’s largest tech companies.

“There certainly is the potential that the Chinese could directly or indirectly put pressure on Musk to constrain how Twitter talks about China,” said Scott Kennedy, an expert in Chinese economic policy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank. “He’s supposed to be a guardian of the public square. That understandably raises questions given how invested Tesla is in China.”

In December, Tesla made its largest show of support for the Chinese government yet, announcing it had opened a showroom in the western Chinese region of Xinjiang, where human rights groups estimate more than 1 million Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities have been imprisoned in what the the U.S. government has labeled a genocide. Other Western companies have pledged to stop sourcing raw materials from Xinjiang, and Tesla’s move came just days after President Joe Biden signed a law restricting imports from the area.

“It is unthinkable that Mr. Musk’s company Tesla could operate in the hotbed of human rights violations without the blessing of the Chinese Communist Party,” Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr., D-N.J., said in a statement. “If Mr. Musk ultimately acquires Twitter, those relationships and the site’s behavior towards CCP (Chinese Communist Party) interests and freedom generally will demand close and continued scrutiny by Congress and the Biden administration.”