Elon Musk has showed off a Tesla to China's premier inside Beijing's walled leadership compound and dined with Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago. If there is anyone with the connections to work things out between the world's two feuding superpowers, it just might be Musk—or so many in Beijing are hoping.
Chinese leaders enjoy some leverage over the Tesla chief executive, who has poured billions of dollars into investments in Shanghai. He has said Chinese leaders "really actually seem to care a lot about the well-being of the people."
That contrasts with the many China hawks in Trump's orbit including Treasury secretary nominee Scott Bessent, who recently called Beijing a "despotic regime" that needs to be hit with high tariffs to protect American jobs.
In China, Musk is a symbol of the American dream and of U.S. technological prowess. Even Musk's 76-year-old mother, Maye Musk, boasts celebrity status. "Given his investment in China and also given his relations with Chinese leaders, people do hope that he can play a constructive role in the second Trump administration," said Wu Xinbo, director of the Center for American Studies at Fudan University.
The uncertainties surrounding the idea are many, starting with whether Musk would be interested in serving as go-between and whether Trump and others in his cabinet want him involved in China policy. And if Trump is determined to impose high tariffs on Chinese goods, as he has suggested, there may be nothing to talk about.
Yet in Beijing, another view prevails, perhaps with a touch of wishful thinking, that Trump and Musk are pragmatic CEOs ready to negotiate.
Trump "has this business instinct and wants to make deals," said Wang Huiyao, president of the Beijing-based think tank the Center for China and Globalization. For that reason, Wang said, Trump would want to tap business executives such as Musk to deal with China.
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