Editor’s note for Friday, April 23, 2021
A note from the editor of today's The China Project Access newsletter.
My thoughts today:
In a show of hostility that may be shocking (sorry!) for Tesla, the American electric car company has been having a tough time in China with internet users and state media. The criticism comes after a woman protested at the Shanghai Auto Show, claiming her fatherโs Teslaโs brakes had failed.
Xinhua News Agency has taken the story as a lesson for foreign companies in China that times have changed:
The about-turn in Telsa’s attitudes from the initial “no compromise” to “openly accepting social supervision” has provided multinationals with an education on the Chinese marketโฆ
In the early days of China’s reform and opening-up, foreign brands that entered China used to bask in the spotlight and were regarded as synonymous with high quality. Imported products were often sold at a higher price than local products of similar quality.
However, this era of perceived superiority has now passed.
Our word of the day is cook up or make an uproar about (้ผๅช gวzร o), as used in a Chinese Embassy statement (in English, Chinese) in reaction to the British parliament declaration that China is committing genocide in Xinjiang.
โJeremy Goldkorn, Editor-in-Chief
