At the invitation of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla Inc., arrived in Beijing on April 28, and Premier Li Qiang and Ren Hongbin, President of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, met with Musk. This is not the first time that Musk has enjoyed over-specification treatment from Chinese officials. In May last year, Musk met with China's foreign ministers, industry and information technology ministers, and commerce ministers during his short 44-hour visit to China.
Against the backdrop of increasingly tense Sino-US economic and trade relations, why does Musk receive differential treatment? An important reason may be Musk's exemplary effect on Sino-US relations.
1. China and the United States can be mutually beneficial and win-win and should be partners, not rivals
In 2018, Tesla opened its first factory in Shanghai. The New York Times Chinese website said that the factory received "special care" from the Chinese side, and it took less than a year from completion to production. Not only did the Chinese provide Tesla with a concessional, low-interest loan, but it also changed the ownership rules for foreign companies, allowing Tesla to build factories without the need for a local Chinese partner, a first for a foreign automaker operating in China.
The secretary of the Shanghai Municipal Party Committee at that time was none other than Li Qiang, the current premier of the State Council.
Now, the Shanghai factory has replaced the Fremont, Calif., factory as Tesla's largest and most productive factory, accounting for more than half of the company's global deliveries and contributing most of its profits.
Cooperation is never a one-way street, which is the underlying logic of China's opening up.
Tesla has also promoted the development of China's electric vehicle industry to a certain extent. Tesla has nearly 100 core suppliers in China, covering almost every link of the industrial chain, from core batteries, motors, electronic controls, to charging piles, chassis and interiors. Among them, only CATL, with the support of Tesla's battery orders, has ranked first in the world in terms of market share for six consecutive years, and has also vigorously benefited other local Chinese new energy vehicle companies.
Second, China and the United States can compete in a healthy way, and competition is not terrible, the key is to look at it rationally and correctly
At present, China's local brand electric vehicles are developing rapidly. By the end of last year, Chinese rival BYD had surpassed Tesla in global car sales. Musk also admitted that without trade barriers, BYD and other Chinese companies would "almost destroy most of the world's car companies."
Many governments and companies have tried to curb the development momentum of Chinese companies, advocating "overcapacity" and "excessive subsidies" for China's electric vehicles, and the European Union has even launched a countervailing investigation into Chinese electric vehicles.
But what does Musk, who is directly involved in the competition, say? The video posted by the Yuyuan Tan Tian Weibo account on the 28th shows that Musk said after arriving in Beijing, "It's great to see the progress of electric vehicles in China, and all cars will be electric in the future." ”
His logic is simple. Under the conditions of market economy, competition is an important driving force to ensure market vitality and innovation momentum. Competition is not terrible, the key is to look at it rationally and correctly. China and the United States can embark on a win-win path that not only improves themselves, but also illuminates each other.
Third, China and the United States can work in the same direction and achieve each other instead of hurting each other
According to Reuters, Musk's surprise visit to China on Sunday was mainly to seek to launch Full Self-Driving (FSD) software in China. FSD is Tesla's most advanced driver assistance technology that can help Tesla improve its competitive advantage in China. However, FSD needs to collect a large amount of road data, which involves data security issues.
Shortly after Musk's visit to Beijing, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers and the National Computer Network Emergency Technology Processing and Coordination Center issued the "Notice on the Testing of Four Safety Requirements for Automotive Data Processing (First Batch)" document. According to the documents, Tesla's 2022 and 2023 Model 3 and Model Y have passed all four requirements for national automotive data security. This is important positive news for Tesla.
These two things are not isolated. "Data security compliance" means that Tesla can drive to more places in China, and the sensitivity of data security is reduced. This can be used to prepare for the FSD to enter China.
The data security of foreign brand electric vehicles is a problem faced by all countries. In February, the Biden administration ordered an investigation into electric vehicles in China, citing potential "national security" risks. U.S. Commerce Secretary Raimondo said: "There are millions of connected cars from China on U.S. roads, which means that China is collecting data from millions of Americans every day, every minute, and transmitting that data back to China." ”
The same argument can be made in China for the American company Tesla.
Lack of mutual trust and mutual suspicion lead to miscalculations and injuries, which is a vicious circle in the current China-US relations.
But Musk is trying to get out of this cycle. On the one hand, the dialogue with the Chinese government cannot be stopped, and on the other hand, it has taken positive actions to build Tesla's Shanghai data center in 2021 to realize localized data storage and respond to relevant concerns with practical actions.
Only by maintaining communication and working in the same direction can we resolve doubts and rebuild mutual trust.
It is hoped that the U.S. government and companies will read Musk's "revelation" of cooperation with China, and promote China-US relations to return to the track of mutual benefit and win-win results, instead of falling into a zero-sum game dead end.
Text: Zhongshan Lu Editor: Think deeply