Why China likes Elon Musk
Last week, Elon Musk danced onstage at his company’s Gigafactory in Shanghai. He had every reason to be happy: Tesla had just rolled out its first made-in-China vehicle, the Model 3 electric car, and the company’s stock price would soon rise over 5 percent. But this moment also marked the culmination of a long personal journey for the embattled CEO, whose first attempt to enter the China market years ago ended in failure.
Last November, a Chinese article titled “A silent struggle for power: The four handshakes behind Tesla’s entry into the Chinese market” was published. It follows Musk’s journey in China and the country’s nascent electric vehicle scene, and analyzes the reasons the Chinese government has given Tesla preferential treatment, the kind normally reserved for domestic companies.
In brief, the government hopes Tesla can kick-start the Chinese electric vehicle industry and help develop an ecosystem of companies that is similar to the way Apple has nurtured an enormous group of developers.
Click through to The China Project to read the piece, translated by Johanna Friese and Jordan Schneider.
—Anthony Tao
