Elon Musk pressured to improve US-China relations during Beijing visit

Mr. Musk's meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang in Beijing marks the billionaire's first trip to China since the pandemic Credit: Ministry of Foreign Affairs PRC via AP

The Chinese Foreign Minister warned Elon Musk that there must be «mutual respect» between the US and China during the Tesla billionaire's first visit to China in more than three years.< /p>

Qing Gang told Musk that the two countries should «avoid dangerous driving» and «keep the helm in the right direction of mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and mutually beneficial cooperation.»

The government minister promised to «steadfastly promote high-level openness» and build China «a market-oriented, law-based and internationalized business environment.»

Mr. Qin, who was until recently the ambassador to the United States, said that «China's development is an opportunity for the world,» the government said in a statement.

These comments will be seen as an attempt to engage Mr. Mask to efforts to mitigate deteriorating diplomatic relations between the US. and China.

A Chinese government statement claims that Musk opposes a «decoupling» of relations between the two countries.

Twitter is banned in China, and Mr. Musk has not tweeted since landing in Beijing on his private jet on his first post-pandemic visit on Tuesday morning.

The 51-year-old man last visited China once in January 2020, shortly after Tesla's Shanghai plant began making cars.

The billionaire is expected to visit the gigafactory in Shanghai during his visit to China as the company plans to increase production in the country .

Tesla has outlined plans to expand its gigafactory in Shanghai and create a new site for the production of megapacks, the company's energy storage systems.

in Shanghai produced about half of all cars produced last year. Photo: VCG/VCG via Getty Images. China and USA.

Beijing has also threatened to block Starlink, the satellite internet service operated by Musk's SpaceX, and military-sponsored researchers have said they could jam the service's signal.

The country's foreign ministry official said: «China welcomes Mr. Musk and other leaders of the business community to better understand China and promote mutually beneficial cooperation.

«We would like foreign investors to work in China, explore the Chinese market and share the dividends from China's development.»

Mr. Musk tweeted on his way to the country: «China's space program is much more advanced than most people think.»

Mr. Musk sought a meeting with Chinese Premier Li Qiang to discuss introduction of autonomous driving technology in China.

The company's Shanghai plant produced about half of the 1.4 million Tesla vehicles produced last year, despite Covid outbreaks limiting production.

In February, the state-run Global Times newspaper warned Musk that he had shared tweets suggesting that Covid-19 originated in a Wuhan research lab.