Elon Musk has found freedom's new champion: Xi Jinping

Elon Musk, the self-appointed high priest of Western free speech, gave an interview to Chinese state television, and while he was at it, thoroughly buttered up Xi Jinping. The Tesla CEO called the Chinese president a "great leader," then stated that under his rule, China has achieved "tremendous prosperity."

According to Musk, this development is visible in the new buildings and infrastructure, but anyone simply walking down a Chinese street might notice it too. He argued that the prosperity of ordinary Chinese citizens has also visibly increased. He did not mention that under Xi's rule, political repression has continued to tighten, the remnants of Hong Kong's freedoms have been dismantled, Uyghurs have been subjected to mass surveillance and internment, and the internet is so tightly controlled that Musk's own platform, X, is not even freely accessible in the country.

That last part is a particularly nice touch to the story. In the West, Musk presents himself as a freedom fighter, lectures governments, and cries censorship whenever a state dares to hold him accountable to its own laws. In China, however, where the Communist Party simply blocks X outright, he doesn't attack Xi's repressive system — instead, he talks about the leader's greatness and the country's prosperity. Free speech, it seems, is a sacred cause — right up until it threatens the Shanghai assembly line. The explanation, after all, is fairly mundane. In 2025, Tesla earned 20.96 billion dollars in revenue in China, accounting for roughly 22 percent of its global sales. The Shanghai plant is the company's largest production and export hub: in 2025, more than half of all Tesla vehicles delivered worldwide came from there. In the interview, Musk called the factory a "jewel box" and described its workers as incredibly talented, hardworking, and reliable. In other words, he wasn't just moved by Xi's greatness as a leader, but also by the nearly 21 billion dollars whose fate ultimately rests in the hands of Xi's system.

The timing is no coincidence either. The Chinese president is meeting Donald Trump in Washington on Thursday, followed by a state dinner held in his honor at the White House. Alongside Musk, the guest list includes Jeff Bezos, Tim Cook, Jensen Huang, Sundar Pichai, Sam Altman, and several other leading figures of American business. So, right before the dinner, Musk told Chinese state television viewers just how much he admires Xi, China's development, and, of course, Tesla's Shanghai plant. Once again, the billionaire has shown what principled politics means to him. In the West, one can rebel against "tyranny," support the far right, and lecture democratically elected governments. But in Beijing, the leader of the Communist Party is great, China is thriving, the workers are wonderful, and not a single word is uttered about the fact that this very same system won't even let Musk's own social media platform into the country.

Freedom is a good thing, but twenty billion dollars is even better.

Ugar