Elon Musk praised China’s genocidal dictator Xi Jinping as a “great leader” in an interview broadcast Wednesday on Chinese state television network CCTV. Musk pointed to the “increased prosperity of the average Chinese citizen” as a sign of Xi’s skill as a leader.
The Independent reports that the Tesla CEO’s comments aired a day before Xi is expected at a White House state dinner hosted by President Donald Trump on Thursday. It is the second summit this year between the leaders of the world’s two largest economies, and Musk is expected to attend as well.
Musk credited Xi with China’s economic growth. “Under his tenure, China has prospered immensely,” he said, adding that the change was visible to him in person: “It’s also obvious to see that, just walking around the streets, the increased prosperity of the average Chinese citizen.”
He also praised Tesla’s operations in Shanghai, home to the company’s main production hub and its largest export center worldwide, calling the team there “incredibly talented, hardworking and trustworthy.” The factory itself got similar treatment: “Tesla’s Shanghai factory is a gem and it’s beautiful, actually, if anyone’s ever been there.”
Musk also praised China’s AI industry which is locked in a technology war with the United States to control the destiny of artificial intelligence:
“The Chinese AI models are generally outstanding actually. I mean you can see on the sort of intelligence rankings there, especially given the limited amount of compute that the Chinese AI companies have, the performance is excellent. Probably China’s doing by far the best in terms of performance per unit of compute. And as I’ve said publicly, you know, I think China’s going address the compute limitation in, I think, faster than most people expect. My rough guess would be that China addresses the compute constraints with lithography and chip making in about two or three years.”
The comments land at an awkward moment for Tesla’s China business. Combined Model 3 and Model Y sales from the Shanghai plant rose 3.6 percent year-on-year in August, a sharp slowdown from July’s pace, and a sign that Tesla’s fortunes are starting to look different in China than elsewhere.
Breitbart News has reported on Musk’s extensive history of praising communist China, a country he has deep business ties to. In 2023, Musk and Tesla pledged to “uphold core socialist values” in the communist nation.
Read more at the Independent here.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of AI, free speech, and online censorship.