Political tensions between the U.S. and China have made Life difficult for U.S. companies in China as well. tesla founder Musk has not only publicly clarified that his electric cars do not engage in espionage, but also praised the Chinese Communist Party‘s policy of reducing carbon emissions. However, observers point out that Musk’s goodwill toward the Chinese Communist Party will not necessarily be rewarded with a “lenient” response from the Chinese authorities.
Musk: Tesla is not a spy
Musk, CEO of Tesla, China’s largest U.S.-owned car maker, recently said in an interview with CCTV that he was impressed by the carbon emission targets set in China’s 14th Five-Year Plan and that he is confident that China will have a bright and very prosperous future.
Musk’s praise for China is thought to be directly related to Tesla Motors’ recent troubles in the country. Musk hopes his charm offensive for China will ease and dispel China’s concerns that Tesla’s cars could pose a safety risk.
Photo: Tesla founder Musk at a Tesla electric car sales event in Shanghai. (Jan. 7, 2020)
The Wall Street Journal recently reported that Chinese Communist Party authorities are restricting the use of Tesla cars by military personnel and personnel of important state-owned enterprises because the Tesla cars’ built-in cameras allegedly continuously record images and obtain data and information about when and where the vehicles are used, as well as the contact lists of cell phones that are synchronized with the vehicles. The Chinese Communist Party fears that certain data may be sent back to the United States, posing a threat to the national security of the Communist Party.
Tesla vehicles are fitted with eight surround cameras, 12 ultrasonic sensors and a front-facing millimeter wave radar to analyze and process information about the vehicle’s surroundings. Chinese officials say these sensors record visual images of the vehicle’s surrounding locations.
In response to the negative news that could jeopardize Tesla’s operations and sales in China, Tesla founder Musk publicly clarified at the China Development High-Level Forum on March 20 that Tesla does not use wireless capabilities to extract any sensitive data, that Tesla does not collect sensitive or private data, that the data Tesla collects is not shared with the U.S. government and that Chinese users’ data is fully protected. He said that if Tesla had spied, the negative impact would have been significant and would have eventually led to the company’s collapse, which Tesla would not have done.
Expert: Chinese Communist Party Won’t “Let Musk Off the Hook”
Dr. Eric Zhang, a U.S. expert on China and author of “China’s Impending Collapse,” said in an interview with the Voice of America that Musk’s clarifications and assurances, and even his praise for the Chinese Communist Party’s policies, may not result in the Chinese authorities “letting him off the hook.
I believe that Musk’s praise of China is an attempt to curry favor with Beijing in the hope that it will be lenient with him,” he said. I also believe that Musk is misguided. The Chinese Communist Party will make life difficult for Tesla and eventually take away Tesla’s technology and shut down its operations in China.”
Zhang Xun, a U.S. international business investment consultant, told Voice of America that Musk wanted to compliment China with overtures so that he could hope that the Chinese Communist Party would give Tesla the benefit of the doubt and not repeat the boycott of Japanese cars in China in previous years.
I don’t think it’s likely (that Tesla will be given a break) either,” he said. It’s probably wishful thinking on Musk’s part. Of course, if he is willing to act as a propagandist for the Chinese Communist Party, for example, like a big foreign propagandist who goes around the U.S. promoting the Chinese Communist Party, that might be a different story. But that’s not likely either. He would simply pay lip service to China’s achievements and show that he is bullish about China’s future development. The current political significance of such things is not something that the Chinese Communist authorities would care much about in the current political environment.”
Foreign companies risk having their money and technology stolen
Zhang Xun said the Chinese government has always had legal and political demands on foreign companies in China, including U.S. companies. But now China is becoming more and more assertive, and U.S. competitiveness appears fragile. As a result, U.S. companies are having a tough Time being caught in the middle of political tensions between the U.S. and China.
Business inevitably becomes a means, a puppet, a prop for the Chinese government to show that it can manipulate the West and control the world,” he said. In this case, the Chinese Communist Party will not hesitate to demonstrate its control, and it’s hard for companies to do anything when they’re caught in the middle.”
Tesla, the world’s largest electric car manufacturer, signed an investment agreement with Shanghai in 2018 to build a factory, the first outside the U.S. and the first wholly U.S. owned car manufacturer in China.In 2019, the first Tesla China cars rolled off the production line. By the end of last year, Tesla had sold 147,000 vehicles in China, accounting for about 30 percent of its total global sales.
Zhang said China is indeed a huge market for big U.S. companies, but China’s long-term goal in bringing in foreign investment is never to let foreign companies take China’s market share, but to take away foreign companies’ money and technology.
He said, “Xi Jinping, the ruler of the Communist Party, doesn’t agree that in the long run foreign companies should really have a place in China. He wants their money and technology, but he doesn’t want to give them long-term market share in China. He wants to replace them, to replace Musk. Five or 10 years from now, Musk will regret that the Chinese Communist Party has ruined Tesla.”
Zhang Jiadun also said that in the short term, U.S. companies operating in China may make money, but in the long term, they will be driven out of China. So if they are smart, they might as well leave China before their technology is stolen.
American values vs. Censorship by Chinese Communist Authorities
This is not the first time that U.S. companies have encountered challenges and problems with their operations in China. in January 2010, the U.S. search engine company Google claimed that Google’s search engine had been hacked by Chinese Hackers who may have had an official background. Google also stated that it had long been required by the Chinese Communist authorities to cooperate with censorship. Unable to agree to and accept the censorship demands of the Chinese authorities, Google announced in March that year that it was withdrawing from the mainland Chinese market.
Zhang Jiadun said that in the long run, it is impossible for U.S. corporate enterprises to strike a balance between defending American values and making money from corporate profits while at the same time having to defer to the Chinese Communist authorities’ controls and censorship.
In 2014, the Chinese Communist Party authorities banned the installation of Microsoft’s Windows 8 system on all computers in government departments, citing the potential for national information security.
China’s Cybersecurity Law, which came into effect in 2017, requires that information and data collected and generated in China by critical information infrastructure operators must be stored in China. Apple has had to comply with China’s cybersecurity law by migrating data stored in iCloud for users in mainland China to servers of the company Guizhou on the Cloud starting in February 2018.
Facebook is a popular social media platform worldwide. On October 22, 2014, Zuckerberg gave a speech in Chinese at Tsinghua University’s School of Management, praising China’s long history and Culture and expressing his determination and persistence that he and Facebook can change the world if they continue to work hard. He expressed his determination and insistence that Facebook can change the world if they continue to work hard.
“Wishful thinking” and “not my kind of people”
But Zhang Xun, a U.S. international business investment consultant, told Voice of America that Zuckerberg’s efforts to please the Chinese Communist Party have not opened the door for Facebook to enter China.
He said, “The Chinese Communist authorities’ refusal to allow Facebook to enter China is more about social stability and controlling public opinion. Because when social media platforms enter China, it is inevitable that the authorities will have some difficulty in controlling the public opinion within China. In this case, even if the American company submits to Chinese values, the authorities are not willing to let you in.”
Zhang Xun said the Chinese Communist Party authorities have a “if it’s not me, it’s different” mentality toward foreign companies operating in China. At a time of political tension between the U.S. and China, the Communist authorities are tightening their grip on U.S. companies, unlike when Tesla invested in a factory in Shanghai in 2019. At that time, the Chinese authorities did not have any security concerns about Tesla’s cars, but over time, the control of the Chinese authorities has changed, making it increasingly difficult for American companies to operate in China.
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