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Elon Musk is the first person from outside of China to write for a magazine run by the government agency in China that is in charge of censoring the internet.
In a recent column for "China Wangxin," a magazine started this year by China's Cyberspace Administration, the world's richest man talked about his plans for colonies on Mars and Tesla robots in millions of homes.
In the column, Musk wrote, "I am happy to share with my Chinese friends some of my ideas about the future of technology and humanity." A Chinese state media reporter translated the column and published it.
"I also hope that more Chinese partners with similar goals will join us in exploring clean energy, artificial intelligence, collaboration between humans and machines, and space exploration to make a future worth waiting for."
The move shows how close Musk is to China at a time when tensions between the US and China are getting worse. On Sunday, the billionaire went on Twitter, which is blocked in China, to celebrate the fact that Tesla's factory in Shanghai had made its millionth car.
He has also praised the country's "amazing" economic growth and not said anything bad about China's strict coronavirus restrictions, even though he has called similar restrictions in the US "fascist."
The Cyberspace Administration of China is in charge of the country's strict online censorship. It encourages internet users to report each other for posts that "deny the excellence of advanced socialist culture" and spread "historical nihilistic misrepresentations online," Reuters reported last year.
The agency also has a stake in big Chinese tech companies like ByteDance, which owns TikTok, and Weibo, which is a social network.
Musk, who calls himself a "free speech absolutist," is the first foreigner to write for the agency's magazine, according to the South China Morning Post. Usually, government officials and executives at state-owned companies write for the monthly publication.
Congrats Giga Shanghai on making millionth car! Total Teslas made now over 3M. pic.twitter.com/2Aee6slCuv
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 14, 2022
The CEO of Tesla is not the first American tech billionaire to try to make friends with the Chinese government.
Mark Zuckerberg of Meta asked Xi Jinping to choose a name for his unborn first son at an Obama White House dinner. This was likely an attempt to get Facebook unblocked in China, but Xi Jinping said no.
Zuckerberg also opened a Facebook office in Beijing. He is said to have bought copies of Xinping's book for Facebook employees so they could "understand socialism with Chinese characteristics."
But Facebook and Instagram are still blocked in China, and Meta has turned to criticizing TikTok for its ties to China in recent years.
Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Google, has also tried to get along with China. In 2018, he looked into releasing a censored version of the company's search engine, but he gave up on the idea later that year.
Trivium China tech policy head Kendra Schaefer says that Musk's current courtship of China is likely to get him in trouble with the US government.
Schaefer told Bloomberg, "Musk is trying to walk the same tightrope that Zuckerberg and Pichai did before him, but these are different times." "Chinese regulations, US users, or the US government are making it harder and harder for tech executives to keep good relationships in China.
"I'll be shocked if Musk isn't being questioned by a congressional committee about his relationship with China in a year."
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