WASHINGTON —
Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk has come under fire after an article written this month for a magazine owned by China’s Cyberspace Administration of China recently appeared online. Critics say Musk, who calls himself a “free speech absolutist”, is cooperating with the CCP to strengthen the legitimacy of its speech censorship by publishing “advance articles” for China’s Internet censorship authority, and questioning Musk’s efforts to communicate to Beijing for his business interests in China. Overly nice.
The Cyberspace Administration of China invited Musk to write
In August 2022, the “China Netcom” magazine, headed by the Central Cyberspace Administration of China and hosted by the China Academy of Cyberspace, published an article signed “Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and Academician of the National Academy of Engineering.” , titled “Believe Technology Creates a Better Future”.
In the article, Musk expounded his vision for the development of clean energy, humanoid robots, brain-computer interfaces, and space exploration, saying that “Chinese companies will be a force to be reckoned with in the cause of energy innovation. “We welcome more like-minded Chinese partners to join us in the exploration of clean energy, artificial intelligence, human-machine collaboration and even space, and jointly create a future worth looking forward to.”
It is worth mentioning that Musk’s statement at the beginning of the article. He said, “Thank you for the invitation from China Netcom magazine, and I am very happy to share some of my thoughts on technology and human vision with my Chinese friends.” Bloomberg reported that a Tesla China spokesperson confirmed that Musk himself wrote it. of this article.
Hu Ping, a China affairs expert and honorary editor-in-chief of “Beijing Spring”, said that it can be judged that Musk wrote this article at the invitation of the Cyberspace Administration of China. “It should be said that he was invited by the Cyberspace Administration of China, because if he just wants to publish articles in China’s state media, he can choose some other publications,” Hu Ping said.
An “authoritative” online information publication with only a paper version
Kendra Schaefer, director of science and technology policy research at consulting firm Trivium China, analyzed on Twitter that “China Netcom” was formerly the “Internet Communication” magazine headed by the Cyberspace Administration of China, and changed its name in March this year. .
In the inaugural issue of “China Net Letter”, Zhuang Rongwen, deputy director of the Propaganda Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, director of the Office of the Central Cyber Security and Informatization Commission, and director of the State Internet Information Office of China, said that the “political nature” of the journal should be highlighted and “adherence to the The principle of running a magazine for politicians is to firmly grasp the correct political direction, public opinion orientation, and value orientation.
The inaugural issue also published a large-scale “documentary on the development of the Internet and information industry at the helm of General Secretary Xi Jinping”.
Ironically, as China’s “comprehensive and authoritative journal in the field of Internet informatization”, this publication currently only has a paper version and does not provide a complete online version.
Hu Ping, honorary editor-in-chief of Beijing Spring, who now lives in New York, said Musk’s publication of an article on China Netcom was “very inappropriate.” He told VOA: “Because China’s Cyberspace Administration is a department of the “Ministry of Truth” in Orwell’s “1984”. If you write articles for such a department, it means that you are against the “Ministry of Truth” This kind of recognition of the functions of the regime, so it is very inappropriate.”
“The CCP is now using network technology to achieve this kind of tight control over people, which has even surpassed the situation depicted in Orwell’s “1984”.” Hu Ping said.
‘Freedom of speech absolutism’ hits China’s censors
Elon Musk, the world’s number one by wealth, calls himself an absolutist of free speech. He believes that traditional media and social media platforms such as Twitter have stepped into the misunderstanding of speech censorship, and proposed to buy Twitter for $44 billion, but announced in July that he would withdraw from the acquisition.
“(Musk) is getting too close to Beijing’s CCP censors for a person who often talks about free speech,” Michael Sobolik, a fellow at the Council on Foreign Policy, tweeted.
Gordon Chang, an American current affairs commentator and author of the book “China Is About to Collapse,” believes that China’s Cyberspace Administration of China hopes to use Musk’s article to increase the legitimacy of its online censorship system.
He told VOA: “Elon Musk shouldn’t be writing for CAC’s magazines. They’re internet censors. Musk says he’s an absolutist of free speech. What he does is make The legalization of censorship in China is wrong at every level.”
Musk repeatedly praised China Tesla China is in delicate situation
Musk has never shied away from courting Chinese authorities. He has repeatedly praised China policy on Twitter. In May, Musk praised China as a world leader in the development of renewable energy and electric vehicles. He also previously praised young Chinese for their hard work, saying they often stay up until three in the morning, and criticized Americans for their reluctance to go to work.
Last year, Musk delivered a video speech at the Wuzhen Summit of the 2021 World Internet Conference hosted by the Chinese government. The summit, also co-hosted by the Cyberspace Administration of China, promotes China’s “cyber sovereignty” model of internet governance and is seen by many internet freedom advocates as a threat to the cyber order in democratic countries.
Also criticized by Western human rights activists, Tesla still insisted on announcing the opening of its store in Urumqi, Xinjiang, on December 31, 2021, after the U.S. “Prevention of Forced Uyghur Labor Law” came into effect. The Council on American Islamic Relations criticized the move as “support for genocide.”
Tyson Barker, head of technology and global affairs at the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP), told VOA about Musk’s writing to the CAC publication: “It appears that he is trying to curry favor with [China]. ) authorities, Chinese authorities can use cybersecurity as a means of restricting Tesla’s market access and forcing Tesla to strengthen local data management in China.”
Under Musk’s various gestures, the Chinese government has given many preferential treatment to his Tesla. Tesla’s Shanghai Gigafactory is China’s first wholly foreign-owned vehicle manufacturer. In 2019, the Chinese government granted special approval for Tesla to use land cheaply, obtain low-interest loans and tax incentives in central Shanghai. This year, Tesla was selected into the “white list” for resumption of work and production in Shanghai shortly after the shutdown policy at the end of March due to Shanghai’s anti-epidemic closure policy.
The Wall Street Journal reported last year that Chinese Communist Party General Secretary Xi Jinping sees Musk as a maverick with no traditional political allegiance to any country, and sees Tesla as a way to make China a new Pioneer of an energy vehicle powerhouse.
Commentary: Musk knowingly committed the Chinese network environment has changed
Western tech giants have repeatedly courted Beijing to open up the Chinese market, with mixed results. Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, who was once dubbed the “Chinese son-in-law” by the Chinese media, was interviewed in 2016 by Liu Yunshan, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and secretary of the Central Secretariat, who was in charge of ideological work at the time. Let the Facebook platform enter the Chinese mainland market.
Hu Ping said that Musk’s “mistakes” in cooperating with the Cyberspace Administration of China’s publicity work this time are different from the early American technology companies’ approach to China.
He said: “Because at that time they really didn’t have a clear understanding of the nature of China’s Internet and the Internet under the control of the CCP, and they still had many illusions. So to this day, especially a department like the Cyberspace Administration of China is represented in China. It should be very clear what kind of role it is.”
However, Musk’s “road to China” has not been smooth sailing.
According to Reuters, from July 1, Tesla electric vehicles will not be able to drive in the Beidaihe area. The outside world speculated at the time that the Beidaihe office meeting of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China was about to be held, and the decision to ban Tesla highlighted the Chinese authorities’ distrust of Tesla’s technical confidentiality and security.
In addition, the satellite Internet Starlink project, which Musk did not mention in the article published by China Netcom, has recently been regarded as a threat by Chinese military analysts.
The “Liberation Army Daily” published an article in May this year saying that Starlink may become “the ‘accomplice’ of the United States to dominate space.” China’s “Modern Defense Technology” also recently published a researcher’s analysis saying that China needs to take countermeasures against Starlink, and can use “a combination of soft kill and hard kill to make some ‘Starlink’ satellites lose their functions and destroy the constellation. operating system”.
Zhang said Musk’s forays into the Chinese market have been problematic from the start, and China’s influence over Musk could go further into U.S. tech sectors including SpaceX, the private satellite launch service he runs.
“I think the (U.S.) Congress should look at his relationship with China, especially since he owns not only Tesla but also SpaceX. SpaceX is critical to the U.S. space effort, and the fear is that Beijing will use its Sla’s influence to get information or influence Musk’s decision on SpaceX,” Zhang Jiatun said.
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