China Is Critical For Tesla’s Mission To Succeed
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China is critical for Tesla’s mission to succeed, but many people tend to forget this. The reason it is critical is that China is the world’s largest auto market. If Tesla is to succeed, it has to have a major presence in China. That is core to its mission. So far, it is off to a great start there, and this is something the USA, a country that is struggling to switch from fossil-powered vehicles to electric vehicles (compared with China and Europe), should be proud of.
I recently saw an article in Business Insider that was headlined “Elon Musk is sucking up to China and it points to a dark future for Tesla,” and I wanted to address this headline. First, it’s authored by a writer who has participated in spreading misinformation and outright vitriol toward Elon Musk and Tesla. She’s even claimed that Tesla’s factory in Shanghai was a field of mud once.
That said, I think Tesla and Elon are most likely aware of the political games in dealing with China, as well as other nations. Elon wouldn’t be where is he is today if he was a dummy. And to assume that he is sucking up to China, in my opinion, is also wrong.
I recently wrote about the fake outrage over Tesla’s new showroom in Xinjiang. We shouldn’t disregard the human rights crisis happening in China, but we shouldn’t use it to paint Elon Musk and Tesla in the light of the evil villain catering to the whims of a communist country — especially when Tesla isn’t the only American company with a presence in Xinjiang or China and most of the people expressing outrage are using products made there.
China is the world’s largest auto market. There are 1.3B people there. Tesla’s largest factory by volume is there.
China is key to the EV transition, and America has a dark future if they shun the world’s largest markets.
Meanwhile @lopezlinette has been sucking up Jim Chanos pic.twitter.com/RYshy8Mz3a
— Whole Mars Catalog (@WholeMarsBlog) January 23, 2022
This goes for all of us. If Americans truly cared about this matter, they would boycott every single company with a presence there — American and non-American. However, we won’t, because it’s almost impossible to do so.
Also, someone mentioned in a recent private message about one my articles addressing the fake outrage over Tesla’s presence in Xinjiang:
“If the concerns are really about the abuse of power, and human rights, and violence … why is Xinjiang the focus …. and not the violence going on everywhere else around the world? Is that balanced?”
This person also asked how many countries China’s militarily has occupied or bombed since 1949, how many the US military has occupied or bombed since 1949, and how many millions of civilians have died in those countries? Although that’s another topic for another platform, I do think that we Americans need to stop being so hypocritical. We can’t be upset with issues if we are contributing to those same issues and are not doing something about our role in such things.
The answer to the first question is that, no, it’s not balanced and it’s just another talking point to smear Tesla, in my opinion. China is the world’s largest auto market, and therefore a key to the transition from fossil-powered vehicles to electric vehicles. Tesla is rightly focused on succeeding there, and its largest factory by production volume is now in Shanghai.
President Biden has spoken a few times of how America is behind China, and that we’ve got to catch up. We will not catch up if we continue trying to suppress Tesla, which is an American company that currently leads the EV market globally.
Think about it: America, the country that is behind China and Europe in terms of EV adoption, is where the leader of the EV market is headquartered, and many thought leaders, politicians, and journalists are so filled with hatred for Elon Musk that they would rather sacrifice their own progress for the sake of false outrage just so they can stroke their bloated egos.
Currently, it’s trendy to smear and hate on Elon Musk and Tesla, and although Elon as a person can be very polarizing at times, you have to ask yourself why is there a mass movement geared toward smearing Tesla?
That question has many answers, with one being that it’s a threat to the entire fossil fuel industry. Tesla has accelerated the transition to sustainability and is brilliantly leading the way into a cleaner future, and legacy automakers are struggling to compete. Tesla’s move is forcing oil and gas companies to actually understand that there are alternatives to fossil fuels. Companies such as Shell are opening up EV charging stations, and although this is a good thing, let’s not forget these are still oil and gas companies and their main product is what’s causing the climate crisis. Further, Tesla is shaking up many industries and humans just don’t like change.
All of this aside, I think that we should look at the Business Insider piece with an open heart and mind. It is important to understand that it is, in my opinion, a piece that is trying to steer public opinion against Tesla, but we have to still have an open heart and mind because our most hateful critics can sometimes impart some useful wisdom. Look for the problems they present, solve them, and move on.
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