Elon Musk kisses the ring in China
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Chinaโs 8th World Internet Conference kicked off in Wuzhen, a water town in eastern China, on Sunday, with appearances by the heads of Alibaba, Xiaomi, Tesla, and Intel.
- Elon Musk touted Chinaโs data protections via video address, nodding to this meetingโs theme of cybersecurity, and said all the data Tesla generates in China will remain in China.
- Alibaba, which was fined a record $2.75 billion in April, deepened its support for the โcommon prosperityโ drive, pledging to train 200,000 rural Chinese for tech careers, its CEO said.
The context: The annual confab, held since 2014, is a chance for domestic and foreign business leaders to curry favor with the central government. Kissing the ring has become even more urgent this year as Beijingโs tech crackdown deepens.
The counterpoint: The growing divide between the Chinese and global internet was also reflected in the small numbers of foreign speakers. Aside from Musk, Intelโs Pat Gelsinger and Qualcommโs Cristiano Amon were the only other prominent non-Chinese entrepreneurs to attend.
