Elon Musk completed his tour in china giving workers at Tesla’s Shanghai plant free hamburgers and sodasa visit that was exhibited on Twitter by China’s state-affiliated media.
The billionaire’s first trip to China in three years culminated in his electric vehicle factory, where he bought fast food for about 100 workers, according to Bloomberg, who reported that he then left on his private plane from the city’s Hongqiao airport on Thursday, June 1.
A video posted online by the Tesla team in Chinaseen by Business Insider, showed Musk delivering a speech to a crowd of workers at his Shanghai plant. He also thanked them for being there with him late at night: “I would like to congratulate you very much for the amazing job you have done”.
The clip was also posted on Twitter by the Global Times, a subsidiary of the Chinese Communist Party’s official newspaper The People’s Daily. Twitter had previously labeled the account as a state-affiliated Chinese media outlet, but dropped the label in April.
#Tesla‘s founder & CEO @elonmusk, thanked the Shanghai Gigafactory’s employees when he delivered a speech at the plant on Wednesday night. “Thank you for being here late at night…I just want to let you know, it warms my heart.” pic.twitter.com/qwsE3nv03O
—Global Times (@globaltimesnews) June 1, 2023
Tesla China Vice President Grace Tao posted a photo on the Chinese social networking site Weibo which shows Musk waving to the camera with workers in Shanghai and which appears as the main image of this post.
Musk, a hero in China
Musk received a hero’s welcome in China after landing in Beijing earlier this weekwith the public praising the Tesla CEO and Twittering on social media as a “global idol”.
His trip has included several meetings with senior government officials, as well as a banquet with Zeng Yuqun, the chief executive of Chinese battery giant CATL.
China has become an increasingly important part of Elon Musk’s Tesla ambitions, with the company’s Shanghai gigafactory producing around half of Tesla’s electric vehicles as of 2021.