Elon Musk Told Bari Weiss That Twitter Would Cater to China for Tesla’s Sake, Uyghur Genocide Has ‘Two Sides’
AP Photo/Michel Euler, File
A passage in Walter Isaacson’s biography of Elon Musk sheds new light on the billionaire’s willingness to placate the genocidal Chinese regime.
According to Isaacson, Musk admitted to The Free Press’s Bari Weiss that Twitter — now X — would willingly accommodate China under his leadership during a meeting.
“But even though she [Weiss] was impressed, she retained some of the skepticism that made her an independent journalist,” wrote Isaacson. He continued:
At one point during their two-hour conversation, she asked how Tesla’s business interests in China might affect the way he managed Twitter. 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 has been oft-criticized for his business relationships in China and its perceived effect on his thinking.
In July of this year, Musk signed onto a letter pledging Tesla’s commitment to China’s “core socialist values,” making the electric car company the only non-Chinese firm to sign onto the letter.
The billionaire has also been praised by Chinese authorities for his pro-China call for the reunification of the U.S.’s greatest geopolitical competitor with Taiwan.
“I would like to thank @elonmusk for his call for peace across the Taiwan Strait and his idea about establishing a special administrative zone for Taiwan. Actually, Peaceful reunification and One Country, Two Systems are our basic principles for resolving the Taiwan question…” tweeted the Chinese ambassador to the U.S. last fall.
Musk has also come under fire for the revelation that he denied access to some of his Starlink satellites to the Ukrainian military as it launched a counterattack against Russia, a Chinese ally.
