Billionaire’s China courtship raises concerns about CCP influence

Billionaire Elon Musk last week earned criticism after positive comments he made about China following a reportedly cozy meeting with Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials in Beijing.

The Tesla CEO, who last week reclaimed his title as world’s richest man, first met with Foreign Minister Qin Gang on Tuesday when he touched down in Beijing. While much of what was discussed in the meeting remains undisclosed, Musk was later quoted by China’s Foreign Ministry as saying that “the interests of the United States and China are intertwined like conjoined twins.”

Qin Gang is known for his hostile approach to the United States, threatening the Biden administration last year with war over its stance on Taiwan.

“If the Taiwanese authorities, emboldened by the United States, keep going down the road for independence, it most likely will involve China and the United States, the two big countries, in a military conflict,” said then-Chinese Ambassador Qin Gang. 

But Qin Gang would have received no objection on the issue from Musk, who in October suggested Taiwan be “re-absorbed” by China.

"My recommendation . . . would be to figure out a special administrative zone for Taiwan that is reasonably palatable, probably won't make everyone happy," he said in an interview. “And it’s possible, and I think probably [sic], in fact, that they could have an arrangement that’s more lenient than Hong Kong.”

Qin Gang publicly thanked Musk for his suggestion the next day. Two days later, China handed Tesla a tax break for two of its models.

Entrepreneur and Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy Thursday slammed Musk over his ostensibly positive stance on China, saying that the deepening relationship between the CCP and America’s corporate leaders is “rampant” and “intentional”.

Ramaswamy cited BlackRock, the world’s largest investment fund with $3 trillion in wealth, whose CEO Larry Fink has maintained a close and fruitful relationship with the CCP. In 2021 BlackRock became the first foreign investment company to open a fully onshore mutual fund business in China. Consumers’ Research last year published an ad warning about Fink’s close ties with the CCP. 

Noting that these companies also receive subsidies from the US government, Ramaswamy said the CCP is turning America’s most powerful corporations into pawns.

“How do they turn them into pawns? Because their private shareholders and their owners get to benefit from entering the Chinese market, but the rest of America is left holding the bag as the proprietors of those firms are spouting off Chinese talking points and actually tilting the scales of deep diplomatic discourse and geopolitical negotiations on matters like whether Taiwan becomes part of China,” said Ramaswamy.

Apple, a known favorite of the CCP, assembles nearly all its products in China and receives approximately $55 billion a year in revenue in China alone. According to the New York Times, the tech giant’s “Chinese supply chain is so large and complex that Apple has concluded it cannot replicate it elsewhere, according to current and former employees.”  

The Times also reported last year that at least one facility used by Apple is owned by the state and has both the Apple and Chinese flags flying out front. Inside, Apple “stores the emails, photos, documents and other data of its Chinese customers.”  

According to four security experts, Apple’s data security compromises at the behest of the CCP “made it nearly impossible for the company to stop the government from accessing the data.”  

Also at the behest of the CCP, Apple automatically removes apps from iPhones that upset the Chinese government and censors certain “banned topics” such as Tibetan and Taiwana independence and the Dalai Lama. 

The CCP’s reach extends to other corporations like Disney and to Hollywood at large. According to a report from free speech organization PEN America, Hollywood collaboration with the CCP has been going on for decades.

“Behind closed doors, Disney, and indeed all of Hollywood, have been self-censoring plots, characters, and dialogues for decades to appease the Chinese Communist Party,” says the report.

American filmmakers already “pre-emptively censor” content intended for China release, including removing any references to Taiwan or mentions of minorities. They dutifully back Chinese claims to the South China Sea. Hollywood studios often hire Chinese regulators on set to advise what should be written out of the film to gain access to Chinese audiences.

When PEN America tried interviewing Hollywood producers on the subject, they were found to be extremely tight-lipped for fear of reprisal from China.

But perhaps even more concerning than globalist corporations becoming the CCP’s bedfellows is the welcome China receives from the US government itself — not in official foreign policy, but far more pervasively.

In April, Michigan’s Senate Appropriations Committee approved plans to build an electric vehicle battery plant, owned by Chinese company Gotion, in Big Rapids Township. The proposal earmarks $175 million in taxpayer funds to subsidize the 550,000-square-foot plant.

Gotion is owned by Chinese tech firm Gotion High-Tech, which pledges loyalty to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) several times throughout its Articles of Association.

Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) maintained a romantic relationship with a CCP spy after she helped get Swalwell elected. Swalwell remained on the House Homeland Security Committee until he was recently booted from the post by Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA).  

In July, the Justice Department charged two members of the Department of Homeland Security with being part of a “transnational repression” scheme, spying on and harassing U.S. political dissidents on behalf of the People's Republic of China. 

This is in addition to Hunter Biden’s current financial interests in China and Joe Biden’s oil policies, which have allowed China to purchase oil at less than half the going international rate per barrel.