Elon Musk is one of the first people to jump in and express his opposition to Vladimir Putin for the invasion of Ukraine. He decides to side with Kyiv and sees what he can do to help them fight off the suppressors.
At the very beginning of the invasion, just 2 days in, Elon decides to send a shipment of Starlink satellite kits to resume Ukraine’s internet connection. SpaceX, Elon’s company sends the equipment and allows the Ukrainian troops to communicate.
China Criticizes Elon Musk’s Support On Ukraine – Will It Have An Effect On His Businesses
While the greater part of the world applauds him for the deed, China has somewhat differing thoughts on the matter. They play this political game where they are friendly with everybody. But at the same time they do not want their relationship with Russia to undergo a change as well. And Elon is headed to China to grow his business in the automotive industry. China is both the biggest market and the biggest workforce for the billionaire.
The government in Beijing is considering both SpaceX and Starlink to be great assets of the US’ Space Military Industrial complex. Blaine Curcio is the founder of the specialist space technology research group Orbital Gateway. According to him, the alarms in Chine are already on, and the government is on full alert. As they see Elon’s company as a military asset, this might ruin the relations that the billionaire has with the Beijing officials.
Starlink, as a part of SpaceX, is on a giant rise. At the moment they have more than 2000 satellites in the low earth orbit. Furthermore, they plan on airing many more in near future. Elon plans on expanding his business in China, and enters in a direct conflict with both USA and China. They are the world leading forces and as such they have extreme competitive nature. He will need to put a lot of thinking into this since it will not be easy to balance things out.
The reason for the complexity of this situation lies in the fact that the Musk or the USA can easily conduct surveillance on Chine with the help of Elon’s satellites. This is a situation that the Chinese military and the Chinese government want to avoid. Furthermore, everybody is aware of the situation in which Taiwan is put at the moment. Having that in mind, the main concern of Beijing’s officials and military planners is that the satellites may be used for surveillance over Taiwan. A country that China ‘doesn’t recognize’.
This ‘help’ that Elon is so easy to gift to Ukrainian officials and the Ukrainian military is waking up the awareness in Chinese officials. They finally see the danger of having someone else’s satellites over China. They need to take care of such ‘threats’.
Now, they may pursue an equal spread of Chinese satellites in the low-orbit as well. US Defense official, Drew Thompson says China now sees the efficacy and utility of having satellites. Especially in a time of war.
Elon Musk is an innovative and clever man technologically and business-wise. Time has shown that he can calculate exactly where to invest and how much to invest. Until now, his senses haven’t lied to him.
Among the other investments planned for the upcoming period, the billionaire plans on investing about $30 billion in SpaceX. The purpose is one – to expand Starlink. Now, more than ever, it seems that SpaceX has become one of his fastest-growing and revenue-creating companies.
Chinese diplomats sent complaints to the UN back in December, regarding the number of Elon’s satellites. They are so numerous that they create difficulty for all Chinese satellites to navigate through free space. In order to avoid collisions, some of the Chinese satellites needed to steer out of their orbit. But in December, since the war in Ukraine had not started yet, the situation was not looked at from that perspective. However, after the conflict and after the invasion, the pressure put on Musk from China keeps growing and growing.
“There is a good chance that Starlink will be taken advantage of by the hegemony-obsessed US to bring the world into… chaos or calamity,” – a publication from the People’s Liberation Army of China states.
This creates a whole movement in China’s governmental institutions to find a way and a plan to stop the expansion of SpaceX satellites. Furthermore, how to take them down. The Beijing’s Institute of Tracking and Telecommunications goes to that extent to develop both ‘soft and hard methods for killing the satellites’.
Beijing is now pushing private companies such as GalaxySpace and ChinaAerospace to increase working on satellites. Developing more sophisticated and more advanced satellites of their own is their primary goal. All this, in order to compete with Starlink and oppose the monopoly that Elon has at the moment.
It’s obvious why the advancement of SpaceX might be a problem for many countries around the world in this view. Imagine someone having a 24 hours surveillance on all happenings in the country. Of course that it represents a problem. And US officials do not oppose this as well. Allegedly, they even state that it is very clear that Starlink presents a ‘threat to China’.
The goal of the Chinese government is not only to disable the development of additional satellites. China is one of the leading and fastest-growing economies in the world. While being a fast-growing economy, in the same time it is the biggest marketplace in the world as well. This is due to its massive population.
China has a great interest in making all products that are sold in the country ‘homemade’. It strives to overcome and become the leading producer of electric cars in the world. And Tesla is a direct opponent and competition.
Elon’s business with Tesla in China is booming. It accomplishes extreme success. The revenue of the sales in 2021 is about $13.8 billion. This is double what it is 2020! Compared to Europe and US factories it grows at the fastest pace.
Looking at a global scale, Tesla is not alone as a company in the production of Electric vehicles. On the list of the best-selling electric vehicles in 2021, out of 10 listed companies, 6 are with Chinese-based headquarters. Wuling, BYD, Nio, Xpeng, and Jidi Automotive are just some of the names that appear on the list. With the increase in sales, they are generating more and more revenue. And they use the money wisely. Similar to Tesla, they invest in autonomous driving. They as well see driverless cars as the future of transport.
According to many experts, Tesla as a company is going through enormous pressure when data collection is at stake. The Chinese companies are much faster, with a broader public, and more effective when it comes to data gathering.
But China has a great mechanism for attracting investments as well. While they want to be the leading country in all specters of technology, they want foreign investments as well. In 2018 they create a sort of ‘special’ conditions under which Elon Musk introduces the Tesla factory in China. The reason is that they want all investments they can get.
While Musk is aware of the threat that China presents to him he also likes the cheap working force that he gets there. Also he is aware that China does represent a threat to his business as well. A threat in the context of developing its own EV companies that will overcome Tesla’s success.
“Tesla is very good, but now the domestic-made cars have made significant progress. There isn’t much need to have Tesla now.” – a statement by one Tesla owner in China.
“I think it’s been very successful so far, and the government’s very happy about it.” Musk states his opinion. This is his position regarding China’s government views on the matter. Furthermore, Musk states that he expects China to account for “probably 25-30 per cent of our markets long term”.
But is this as it seems for the billionaire? Analysts forecast that China will eventually introduce some sort of restrictions to Tesla. When we say restrictions, it is not meant that they will limit Tesla’s production to a certain amount, or implement higher taxes, or anything in that manner. It is meant that they will eventually limit the sales in the country. Once their own ‘domestic’ production reaches a satisfactory level to supply the whole country, they will most certainly defend their economy.
China is a leading economy in the world. But at the same time they are one of the leading military forces as well. So it will be no wonder if they restrict all data gatherings and limit businesses that they see as security threats to the country. And with the Starlink, Musk is definitely breaching that security concern.