While the US presidential election was a competition between Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump, for many Chinese, tech guru Elon Musk was arguably the biggest winner.
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Musk, the CEO of electric-vehicle maker Tesla, became one of Trump’s most vocal supporters and could be in the running to be a cabinet member in the next administration.
He is also a household name in China for the Shanghai Gigafactory, Tesla’s biggest factory in the world, and for investing heavily in the country during China’s economic downturn.
The prospect of Musk joining the US cabinet has raised hopes in China that there will be more engagement between Washington and Beijing, with tech billionaires like him playing the role of stabiliser in a strained relationship.
Musk has had the red carpet treatment during his China visits and was also among the first business executives from the US to visit Beijing last year after China lifted its Covid-19 travel curbs.
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As the China-US tech war took off, he told then foreign minister Qin Gang that Tesla was opposed to decoupling – the separation of Chinese and Western supply chains.