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| Batya Ungar-Sargon talks to Megyn Kelly about Elon Musk, click above |
1. No, his entire supply chain is not in China. It is in what he calls "40 geographical regions" around the world, including Europe, Asia and the US."His [Musk's] entire supply chain is in China..."
"... and he is unbelievably close with the CCP."
I'm reminded by this by Thomas Sowell: "There are no solutions, only trade-offs'. The trade-off for Musk and Tesla in relation to China was: (i) Are we going to go into the China market, the largest consumer and producer market in the world, the largest car market in the world; the trade off for which is restraining our criticism of the CCP or (ii) Are we going to stay out of the market, so we can retain our virtue and continue to criticise the CCP on X?
Musk made the choice. I guess there are many that might disagree. But the TSLA stockholders did not. The Tesla factory in China is the largest in the world. It was built, By the way, in record time, vs builds in Germany and the US, and from which much was learned.
There is no "solution" here. No case in which Tesla could enter the China market and then have its "maverick" CEO willy nilly bashing Xi Jinping on his social media platform. Talk about an edge case of FAFO!
"Xi Jinping asked him to build a showroom for Tesla in Xinjiang which is where the Uyghurs are being genocided and [Musk] complied."
I really don't like the use of "genocided" here, just as I don't like its use against Israel, and have written repeatedly against it, on my blog. "Genocide" has a specific meaning. It applies neither to Gaza nor to Xinjiang.
That said, I never really liked the Han Chinese treatment of Uyghurs, and said so on my blog as early as 2008. I was an early denouncer of their treatment. Yet there is an argument, from the Han Chinese side, and others, that what is being done is to de-radicalise the extremist Muslims in an area they call, not Xinjiang, but "East Turkmenistan". Bejiing has good reason -- with regular example in the rest of the world -- of what radical Islam, of what Jihadis, can do.
"He didn't have to do that. he's the richest man on the planet."
This is irrelevant for what Musk does is not for the money. I fully believe he loves mankind and is doing what he can to make it multi-planetary for the long-long term. There's heaps of things he "didn't have to do", if money were the only goal. Note, By the way, how he lives. He owns no houses. He owns no luxury yacht. He has a private plane, because it makes it quicker to get around to dispense his extremely valuable time.
So he has this unbelievably obsequious relationship with China who I believe is our greatest adversary. "... unbelievably obsequious" is a value judgement. For sure he's not been a critic of Xi and the CCP, for the obvious reason. The United States is a robust and rowdy democracy with its full measure of free speech. China is not. It's a Leninist dictatorship. Were he to do the "maverick" thing in China, his business would be bust. Refer again to the Thomas Sowell quote. There are no solutions (ie, ideal outcomes), only trade-offs". This is a trade-off that Musk and Tesla have made to be in the world's largest car market.
Some of the views Elon has expressed about China I would not have. For example, I'm not sure there was need to opine on the Taiwan question. For me, the status quo is the best that Taiwan can expect; ther is no point in demanding "independence", which it already has de facto, just not de jure. Yet it's true that what Elon said about Taiwan, being part of One China, is the policy of virtually every country in the world including the United States and the United Nations.
As to his praise for the CCP handling of the Chinese people, he's right. I'm no fan of Xi or the CCP. And yet I've witnessed with my own eyes the massive improvements in the livelihoods of the ordinary Chinese people. Visit China, and you'll see. You'll bump into Chinese people who are warm, friendly and happy. True!
I don't see how you can truly be an American Patriot when you have to bend the knee to China and have proven willing to bend the knee to China over and over again.
He's such a maverick on Twitter when it comes to American politics, but he has never once said a negative word about the CCP, which of course engages in tons and tons of you know human rights violations the genocide of the Uyghurs and of course undermines America at every turn that it can.
Just to repeat my comments above. He cannot be in China the "maverick" that he is in the U.S. He's either in China, with its restrictions, or he's not. There are only trade-offs!
Again, repeat my comment about "genocide" of the Uyghurs. Han Chinese (ie the majority) treatment of Hui Chinese (ie, the Uyghurs) is tough. It's not genocide.
So on that front I'm I'm very uncomfortable with him being this close to power.
Me, not at all. For reasons above.
The way that he related to American workers over the H1B visa squabble over Christmas when he literally endorsed a tweet calling Americans "retarded" I really, really, really didn't like that.
He came out in favour of the H1B visa, against the likes of Steve Bannon. Just that he thought it should be revamped to remove the rorting. He did Like an X post saying some young Americans are "retarded", a word he uses a touch too often for my taste as well. But, what? We're going to be upset by Hurty Words now? Like Trump has never said any? I dunno. Kind of equal treatment required here.
I don't think he is has the same values as the MAGA movement.
He's not religious.
Well! I'm not religious either. I would have voted for Obama and even Hillary'16 (god help me), but would have voted for Trump in 2020 and last year. I'm an Aussie, but now big Trump fan. Do I need to be religious for that?
I live with two women, one a Buddhist, the other Catholic. Me an atheist. We get along fine. I'm fine with all religions, Catholic, Buddhist, Jewish (I'm a judeophile and philo-semitic). Just one I don't like, Islam, because it's more of a supremacist ideology than a simple Abrahamic religion and certainly not the "Religion of Peace".
But I digress. Do we need to be religious to be Republicans? To support Trump? (I'm pretty sure The Donald is not really religious...).
He's never been married.
Wrong. He's been married three times, twice to the same woman. However, would it matter if he'd never been married? If so, why?
He has this kind of transhumanist view. He thinks that Americans are going to be you know people are going to become computerized and that intelligence is going to be machine made. All of this stuff for me really puts him at odds with the values of the MAGA movement.
Transhumanist? I think Elon is simply saying that that's where he sees homo sapiens going eventually. As a kind of Cyborg. Not that he plans it, or welcomes it (though he might), just that that's where our AI and technology is leading us. Which, by the way, is the theme of many a Hollywood movie.
As for "being at odds with the values of the MAGA movement", I wonder. How many others, newly welcomed into the Big Tent, might also not hew to every single value of the MAGA movement, whatever these might be. RFK Jr? Tulsi? The All-in guys? Certainly not me, an Aussie here in Hong Kong, who nonetheless enthusiastically supports Donald Trump, his team and his bro Elon Musk.
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And I also think that you know the media of course is criticizing him for all the wrong things. But so that's kind of where I'm at on this.
Not sure whether Batya is saying that Trump is being criticised for all the wrong things, or whether she means Musk. It really ought to be Musk. Because it's he who's being criticised for all the wrong things. By people who either don't know him or don't want to know him.
To my mind, he's the Leonardy da Vinci of our time. The unique blend of inventor, artist, mathematician, constructor, entrepreneur and visionary.
I feel blessed -- by that non-existent god -- to be living in the Age of Musk. We'll never see his like again this century.
There's a final practical note, here, Batya. There are plenty of people on the Left who are hitting hard on Elon, including many death threats. We don't need someone who's on "our side" to be beating up on him as well. Particularly when, as I believe, those views are largely either wrong, or out of context. To use your words, criticised "for all the wrong things".
Peter Forsythe
Hong Kong
+852 9308 0799
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| Two old dogs -- Peter Forsythe and Byron holding up Batya's two books. In depths of Hong Kong winter |
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