Elon Musk's China Ass-Kissing Tour Has Resumed With interesting questions now being raised about Tesla's sales in China seemingly not matching official insurance data for registrations, Elon Musk is continuing his Chinese ass kissing tour that he began earlier this year. In a forum on Friday, Musk praised Chinese automakers - also known as Tesla's competition - as “the most competitive in the world”. Musk also said China had "great potential" as a nation for electric vehicles, according to Bloomberg. In a pre-recorded appearance at the World New Energy Vehicle Congress, Musk said: “I have a great deal of respect for the many Chinese automakers.” Data security was another topic Musk talked about, stating that it was the "cornerstone" of the EV industry as it develops. Then he appeared to make a backhanded allusion that Tesla would be turning over whatever data the CCP wanted: “Tesla will work with national authorities in all countries to ensure data security of intelligence and connected vehicles. With the rapid growth of autonomous driving technologies, data security of vehicles is drawing more public concern than ever before.” We couldn't help but notice that the statement he made, captured in a screenshot by Bloomberg, looks - well, exactly what you'd think communist propaganda would look like. Musk continued: “Public sentiment and support for electric vehicles is at a never before seen inflection point because they know it is the future.” Later on during the same day, Musk tweeted to the official Xinhua News Agency after a successful three month space mission: "Congratulations on a successful mission!” Recall, we were first, with the help of well-known short seller Montana Skeptic to ask in April of 2020 whether or not Musk risked becoming a Chinese asset, due to how much of a necessity China was becoming to Tesla's business operations. Things were mostly quiet until the beginning of 2021, when in January, Musk called the Chinese government "more responsible" to its citizens than the U.S. government. In March we noted how Musk continued to kiss the ass of the CCP, singing the praises of the country and its government. Then, in April 2021, a spat emerged between Musk and the CCP, supposedly after a protestor at the Shanghai Auto Show in April "went viral" after standing on top of a Tesla vehicle and decrying the car's brakes. This led to intense shaming by Chinese media, who called Tesla's handling of the situation a "blunder" and suggested it could "inflict serious damage" on Tesla with the Chinese market. Since then, we noted that the Chinese government still didn't seem amused by Musk until May of this year, when Musk made a public about-face on Bitcoin and was then immediately praised by China's state owned Global Times. In fact, the Global Times then published a piece stating that "work at Tesla's Shanghai Gigafactory is going smoothly," just days after it was reported that Tesla was halting its expansion in China, seen as key to its plans to export from its Asia headquarters. As of August, it appeared things were back somewhat to normal between Musk and the CCP. Perhaps with this appearance, we now know why. Tyler Durden Fri, 09/17/2021 - 11:05