tesla resolutely invested heavily in Shanghai a few years ago when U.S.-China trade relations began to deteriorate. Today, there is a subtle change in the Chinese government’s attitude toward Tesla. Tesla companies in China have recently been interviewed by multiple authorities to comply with Chinese regulations, and Chinese citizens have begun to question whether Tesla’s products could jeopardize China’s national security.
U.S. electric car maker Tesla, with companies in Beijing and Shanghai, was recently interviewed by China’s General Administration of Market Regulation, the Internet Information Office, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Transport, and the Fire and Rescue Bureau of the Ministry of Emergency Management regarding consumer reports of abnormal acceleration, battery fires, and vehicle remote upgrades (OTAs). The authorities asked Tesla to strictly comply with Chinese laws and regulations, strengthen internal management, implement the main responsibility for corporate quality and safety, effectively maintain social public safety and effectively protect the legitimate rights and interests of consumers.
In response, Chinese financial scholar Commander said in an interview with Radio Free Asia on Wednesday (10) that as a new energy vehicle industry, its technology are in the process of rising: “So Tesla in the process of battery fires, some accidents that occur, first of all, are individual cases, the proportion is relatively small, very difficult to avoid in the large probability, even if the traditional car may have a small problems. But Tesla feels very wronged, the Chinese government and the public only take him out of the problem to say things, on other new energy vehicles out of the problem as if they were blind.”
Left: The Internet Information Office and five other departments asked Tesla to comply with the law. Middle: Tesla recently issued a statement promising to “strictly comply with Chinese laws. Right: Some Chinese netizens leave messages rejecting Tesla. (Internet photo)
According to several Chinese media reports, on the evening of February 8, Tesla responded to the interview by officials from five Chinese departments on Weibo: “Tesla sincerely accepts the guidance of government departments and deeply reflects on the shortcomings of the company in the operation process, and comprehensively strengthens self-examination and self-examination.” Tesla also said that it will systematically investigate, effectively implement consumer rights protection and further implement the main responsibility of enterprise quality and safety.
After Tesla made the above response, numerous netizens who wanted to criticize Tesla found that comments on the microblog were closed.
Academics: Chinese Communist Party tries to suppress the speed of Tesla’s development in China
Tesla is a well-known U.S. company that has a competitive advantage among its Chinese counterparts in terms of the quality and price of its electric cars. An industry insider told the station that many Chinese electric car manufacturers have difficulty competing head-on with Tesla even with government financial subsidies, so they look for loopholes in Tesla’s products and attack them. For example, cars burning, quality problems with a particular model, etc.
The commander said, “The Chinese government may want to take this opportunity to further compress the space for foreign companies to develop new energy vehicles in China, and she is trying to give market share, more to domestic enterprises, especially state-owned enterprises or mixed ownership.”
According to Jingchu.com, last month, Nanchang citizens were unable to start their newly purchased Tesla electric cars when they broke down while charging them. Shanghai citizen Mr. Chen called himself a “prospective Tesla owner”, but after visiting the 4S store on the ground to see the actual car, his thoughts were somewhat shaken. “The main thing is that the manufacturer’s attitude towards the problem makes people feel uneasy.” Mr. Chen told the media reporter, before in the network forum, many owners had complained about the quality of the interior of the vehicle is not up to par, the existence of water leakage problems in the rain, etc..
Guan Xuejun, president of China Car Select, recently bluntly pointed out in a forum that Tesla cars could be a tool to obtain Chinese intelligence. He said in a forum dialogue: “Today we have Tesla, all its radar, probes, in fact, the same reason as when spies used the eyes of dogs. Because the whole transmission system of Tesla is through the system of the U.S. military. If we talk about it more seriously, we can think that Tesla car in the Chinese land, and even a lot of secret service personnel bought Tesla, then, all your secret information directly to the U.S. military.”
For the conversation in the above video, it sounds like a bridge in a movie. However, Mr. Li, a car user, finds such sensational reasoning unconvincing. He said there is an important reason why Tesla is being ostracized in China: “An important reason is with Tesla’s recent remarks are more in favor of freedom of speech, to speak out for freedom of speech, including that he has to get a website and an operating system. As for whether Tesla is going to use the car for espionage, I think this thing only a certain country will do, other countries do not care to do such nasty things.”
Wang Bin, advisor of Wuhan Automobile After-Sales Service Association, said that Tesla’s every move from entering the Chinese market to the significant price cuts of its main models will trigger large-scale discussions.
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