Earlier this week, reports emerged that Chinese leaders are viewing the world’s richest user and casual advisor to Donald Trump, Elon Musk, as a suitable customer for TikTok, which will be banned in the United States starting tomorrow. TikTok called those reports “pure fiction. ” However, TikTok CEO Shou Chew will be with Musk and other political and business heavyweights at Trump’s inauguration on Monday. Chinese Vice President Han Zheng will also be among the audience, marking the first time a Chinese leader will attend the swearing-in of a U. S. president. .

While Musk has been at Trump’s side since November’s election, he has been loyal to China’s ruling political class for over a decade—as any of his 213 million followers on X can attest. Forbes analyzed Musk’s comments about China over a dozen years and across 110 tweets. The posts on X (formerly Twitter), which span from 2011 until the present, offer a window into the evolution of Musk’s relationship with China and raise questions about the growing political influence of Musk, who is poised to play a central role in U.S. policymaking over the next four years as both an advisor to Trump and as head of DOGE, a new organization tasked with trimming U.S. spending.

Initially, before Tesla had business there, Musk was cold toward China, but he replaced his brain once he began pressuring the country’s leaders to build a massive Tesla factory in Shanghai. Although he has never spoken of Chinese President Xi Jinping by name, nor commented on debatable topics such as the internment of Uyghur ethnic minorities in China’s Xinjiang province, he addresses topics similar to his companies, Tesla and SpaceXArray. In dozens of tweets, Musk praised China’s infrastructure. and high-speed rail system, praised its area program, praised its green energy policies and encouraged its supporters to stopover in the country. In two events he responded to or tagged accounts published in Chinese state media.

Musk has rarely spoken about the Chinese political regime. Forbes uncovered only two moments of special criticism, both from 2012: One article criticized China and Russia for vetoing a UN solution calling for the resignation of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, while another accused China of hiding a crisis in his true country. real estate sector. On two other occasions, in 2019 and 2022, Musk denounced Chinese government policies that impacted Tesla’s business (subsidies to domestic automakers and zero-Covid restrictions) without blatantly criticizing the authorities.

Musk’s courtship of Chinese leaders began as early as October 2015 when, during a visit to Tsinghua University in Beijing, he confirmed that he was negotiating with the government on opening a plant. Simultaneously, he began endearing himself to China publicly on Twitter. In late 2016, he congratulated China for its launch of a heavy-lift rocket, tagging the Twitter account of the Chinese Communist Party’s official state news agency. When a second rocket launch failed, he expressed sympathy for the builders and rebutted a user who took a crack at Chinese manufacturing capabilities. “China’s progress in advanced infrastructure is more than 100 times faster than the US,” Musk later claimed.

His pro-China sentiment coincided with his skepticism toward President Donald Trump. After first joining Trump’s business advisory council, Musk announced his departure in June 2017 following Trump’s decision to withdraw the United States from the Paris climate accords. He then invoked China as a positive counterpoint to the United States. as much blank electrical energy through 2030 as the United States produces today, from all sources,” Musk tweeted.

A few months later, in March 2018, when Trump suggested China reduce the U. S. industry deficit, Musk, who was then struggling to keep Tesla afloat, responded in a series of messages, complaining about uneven industrial regulations between the two countries. “A U. S. car bound for China will pay import duties of 25%, but a Chinese car arriving in the U. S. will only pay 2. 5%,” Musk said. “In addition, no U. S. automaker can even own 50 percent of its own plant in China, but there are five 100 percent Chinese-owned EV manufacturers in the U. S. Despite his concerns, Musk said he is optimistic and that China has already shown a willingness to open its markets. will do the right thing. “

Trump never responded to Musk’s entreaty, but China did as President Xi Jinping announced that it would lower import tariffs on vehicles just four weeks later, drawing Musk’s public praise. Then, in July 2018, Tesla inked its deal with Chinese authorities to build its Shanghai plant, and received low-interest loans from Chinese state-owned banks to help finance the construction. Tesla became the first foreign automaker to maintain 100% ownership of its Chinese subsidiary.

To seal the deal, Musk worked intensively with Li Qiang, a senior Shanghai official who in 2023 was promoted to China’s premier, the only president Xi Jinping in the Chinese Communist Party’s pecking order. “Just finished an incredible three-day layover in China,” Musk tweeted, jubilant over the deal, adding that he enjoyed a “deeply engaging discussion” with then-Chinese Vice President Array Wang Qishan, who was once the Communist Party’s right-hand man. . anti-corruption campaign.

“The Chinese state has enormous regulatory powers. Cooperating at least publicly is a fairly common strategy,” says Scott Kennedy, a China expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Chinese Premier Li Qiang meets with Elon Musk, CEO of US automaker Tesla, in Beijing, the Chinese capital, on April 28, 2024.

The Shanghai factory, which opened in December 2019, was a major boost to Tesla’s business. Since then, its sales in China have increased sevenfold. In 2024, Chinese consumers bought 36. 7% of all Tesla cars, making China the company’s largest market, even ahead of the United States. The factory, which also exports cars to other countries, produces more than a portion of all Tesla vehicles. Less hard work and input prices in China have boosted Tesla’s operating margins, propelling its shares — and Musk’s fortune — to new heights.

“I can’t underestimate the importance of the Chinese market to Tesla, now and in the future, especially now that the U. S. and Europe are slowing or revising subsidies and other measures of this nature for EV adoption,” Tu Le says. , which runs the consulting firm Sino Auto Insight. ” It is their key market, not only from a sales attitude but also from a production attitude. “

While benefiting Tesla, China’s support of Musk’s ambition was also a strategic move to help boost the country’s domestic electric vehicle industry. Tesla’s demand for materials spurred the development of suppliers, such as CATL, which has since become the world’s largest battery supplier. Tesla’s market share in China has dipped in recent years, especially to BYD, which is now the world’s largest EV manufacturer.

“It created a huge synergy,” Kennedy says. “This has been a blessing for Tesla and a blessing for China’s electric vehicle industry. “

During the 2024 presidential campaign, as Musk embraced the Republican Party and then Trump, his pro-China views brought him into conflict with parts of the MAGA coalition, including on the sensitive topic of immigration. “Immigrants from China & other Asian countries have made incredible contributions to America,” Musk tweeted in February 2023, in response to a news story about the rise of Chinese immigrants illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. Last March, when his future DOGE partner Vivek Ramaswamy lamented the U.S. military’s dependence on China for raw materials, Musk pushed back: “Both the US and China are extremely dependent on each other.” Ramaswamy previously said on his podcast that Musk would “jump like a circus monkey when Xi Jinping calls in the hour of need.”

Musk has tamped down his China praise since Trump’s election victory, but on Wednesday, he took time out of schedule to shout a Chinese social media influencer who happens to look just like him. “I love my Chinese alter-ego ?,” Musk tweeted.