Will Musk Be 'China's Spokesperson'

[Anchor]
President-elect Donald Trump has a tough stance on China, including a tariff bomb.

However, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who has become the heavyweight of the next Trump administration, has a different opinion of China.

Will Musk ever be 'China's Spokesperson'?

Reporter Kwon Young-hee reports.

[Reporter]
Trump intensively deployed China's ultra-hardliners to the diplomatic and security lines to launch a strategy to check China in earnest.

However, Musk has a close interest in China for his electric vehicle business.

The Gigafactory, an electric vehicle assembly plant in Shanghai, accounts for half of Tesla's global production.

It also took out more than 2 trillion won in loans from banks controlled by the Chinese government to build the plant.

China's current law allows the Communist Party to demand information in exchange for companies doing business in the country.

As the next administration's heavyweight, we can't help but want to use Musk, who has access to sensitive information.

[SOAS China Lab Director Steve Chang: There is room for Beijing to use Elon Musk as a friendly voice to attempt to ease the Trump administration's China policy]

Musk has so far maintained a favorable stance toward China.

Commended President Xi Jinping to mark the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party in 2021.

"We oppose the decoupling between the U.S. and China," it said in a 2023 meeting with China's foreign minister, Chin Kang.

Some in the U.S. argue that Musk should be deprived of confidential access if he is proven to be deeply linked to China.There is even a prospect that

The 'China issue' may split Trump and Musk.

[Thomas Gift, Director of the Center for American Politics, University of London: Elon Musk is wielding enormous power right now. The biggest question is whether Trump and Musk, the two great pride, will eventually clash. Whether it's policy or character.

Attention is focusing on whether Musk, the only "pro-China figure" among Trump's closest aides, will act as a "China's spokesman" and influence China's policy.

I'm YTN's Kwon Younghee.