China Looks to Use Tesla FSD Rollout as Leverage in Trade Negotiations | Hacker News Reader

China Looks to Use Tesla FSD Rollout as Leverage in Trade Negotiations

gizmodo.com

6 pointsnickthegreek5 comments

China has so much leverage over Musk having subsidized some of Teslas biggest factories, and being one of Teslas biggest markets.

In fact Tesla was the only foreign automaker to commit sign a letter affirming the CCP's "core socialist values" in 2023.

https://archive.is/RMcao

> Elon Musk’s Tesla has joined Chinese automakers in pledging to enhance “core socialist values” and compete fairly in the country’s car market after Beijing directed the industry to rein in a months-long price war.

> Yaqiu Wang, senior China researcher with Human Rights Watch, said the pledge on Thursday undermined Tesla’s standing. “Failing to comply with ‘core socialist values’ has been frequently used by authorities to punish speeches that are critical of the Chinese government,” she said.

> His trip returned the spotlight to restrictions on free speech that have intensified under Xi. Twitter is banned in China, and Musk refrained from using the platform during his visit, drawing criticism from human rights groups over allegations of compliance with Chinese censorship.

I guess China knows who they're really negotiating with

No reason to cave in even a little. China does not allow reciprocal access to their markets for many American and European companies. That’s what the trade negotiations are about. This is just extending the problem further.

Leaving that aside, no country should be doing business with China anyways, as it only gives power to the authoritarian regime that controls China. Trump’s campaign messaging around hard trade policies with China was correct and can help undermine the CCP. Hopefully he will actually deliver and not cave in because of Elon Musk’s business dependencies on China, which I think are a serious risk of corruption. Many already suspect the lack of enforcement on the TikTok ban as being influenced by Elon, and through him, the CCP.

Seems to some that the US is looking to emulate Chinese authoritarianism, not run away from it.

Capitalism does not care who makes it profit. Trump makes all his branded stuff in China. Tim Cook, Warren Buffett, Elon Musk are just a few of the obvious names to invest heavily there. The American working class does not care, Walmart and Amazon distribute enormous quantities of Chinese-made goods to them. We'd be heavily into Russia or North Korea if they made anything we wanted, it's just that dysfunctional societies aren't all that productive.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com