Elon Musk said Twitter must tread carefully on China to protect Tesla’s business, new book alleges

Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of X — formerly Twitter — disclosed that the platform would need to operate cautiously when it comes to China due to his business interests there, according to a new biography by author Walter Isaacson.

Musk said X would need to be cautious with how it discussed China because of his electric car company Tesla’s business in the country, according to the book excerpt. The billionaire “disturbed” journalist Bari Weiss by telling her that there were “two sides” to China’s genocide of the Uyghurs, an ethnic minority in the country.

Musk spoke to Weiss for a couple of hours and she questioned him about this topic.

“At one point during their two-hour conversation, she asked how Tesla’s business interests in China might affect the way he managed Twitter,” Isaacson writes. “Musk got annoyed. That was not what the conversation was supposed to be about. Weiss persisted. Musk said that Twitter would indeed have to be careful about the words it used regarding China, because Tesla’s business could be threatened. China’s repression of the Uyghurs, he said, had two sides. Weiss was disturbed.”

Musk met with Chinese Communist Party Committee Secretary of Shanghai Chen Jining as well as China’s foreign, commerce and industry ministers in May, according to Reuters.

“The interests of the United States and China are intertwined like conjoined twins,” China’s foreign ministry quoted Musk as saying after a meeting, according to CNN Business.

Tesla has a factory in Shanghai that has manufactured 2 million cars, according to Reuters.

“It’s been incredibly impressive how you have been able to overcome so many difficulties and so many challenges,” Musk told staff at the factory, according to CNBC. “I tell people throughout the world, the cars we produce here are not just the most efficient production, but also the highest quality.”

Musk opened a showroom in Xinjiang, the province where Uyghurs are oppressed, in late 2021, according to the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC).

Weiss, X and Tesla did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.

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