The think tank also suggested targeting Musk’s family members.
A Chinese military think tank is recommending that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leadership strengthen economic and emotional bonds with tech billionaire Elon Musk to influence President-elect Donald Trump on how to respond to the Taiwan issue, according to insider information obtained by Yuan Hongbing, a former law professor at Peking University and a renowned Chinese dissident living in exile in Australia.
According to Yuan’s source within the CCP, whom The Epoch Times did not speak with directly because of security concerns, vice chairman of the CCP’s Central Military Commission Zhang Youxia convened nine of China’s top geopolitical experts and military strategists from the People’s Liberation Army and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to author a new report from a Chinese military think tank on the likely effect of the 2024 U.S. election on geopolitics.
Yuan, who viewed the report, said it outlined recommendations for the Party leadership on how to handle U.S.–China relations, and correctly predicted that Trump would be returning to the White House.
One of the strategic recommendations involved Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX and the owner of social media platform X.
“This think tank has advised the Xi Jinping administration to focus the CCP’s United Front to work on targeting Elon Musk and his family members, especially his mother,” Yuan told The Epoch Times.
The CCP’s United Front, formally known as the United Front Work Department, answers directly to the Party’s Central Committee, which is headed by Xi.
The United Front coordinates thousands of groups to carry out foreign political influence operations, suppress dissident voices and activities, gather intelligence, and facilitate the transfer of technology to China. Ultimately, the CCP uses the United Front to advance its economic, political, and security interests worldwide.
Xi has described the United Front as the CCP’s “magic weapon.”
In December 2023, Xi met with Chinese diplomatic envoys in Beijing and told them they must “make good use of the effective instrument of United Front work,” according to Chinese state-run media.
Yuan said Musk is a priority for the CCP because of the Tesla CEO’s significant economic ties to China and his previous pro-Beijing comments on the Taiwan issue.
Trump on Nov. 12 appointed Musk co-head of a new efficiency department in his incoming administration to improve U.S. government efficiency. The department is not a Cabinet portfolio and will have little direct influence on foreign affairs.
Musk was also previously a member of the president’s Strategic and Policy Forum, convened by Trump at the start of his first term. However, Musk resigned in 2017 because of disagreement with Trump’s decision to pull the United States from the Paris Climate Agreement.
Yuan said he believes the think tank’s strategy of influencing Trump through Musk is unlikely to be effective.
“It’s a low-probability event,” he told The Epoch Times. “Trump’s national aspirations and the CCP’s authoritarian strategy are fundamentally incompatible.”
He added that the administration team appointed by Trump is composed of politicians with a clear understanding of the CCP’s oppressive regime.
“Trump is a terminator of appeasement policies toward the CCP’s authoritarianism,” he said.
Yuan said he hopes that Musk and his family members will stick to their consciences if they are approached by CCP personnel.
“CCP’s totalitarian regime is the enemy of the free, democratic world and the greatest adversary of the United States,” Yuan said. “It’s hoped that entrepreneurs will stand on the side of freedom and democracy at this critical moment in history.”
The report also made several other recommendations to Xi, such as increasing military and economic aid to Russia, fracturing America’s various alliances on a global scale, and strengthening political relations with Middle Eastern powers that resist the United States.
Musk and his mother Maye Musk did not respond to a request for comment from The Epoch Times.
Possible Taiwan Invasion
Yuan said that the report also recommended accelerating the CCP’s invasion of Taiwan so that it takes place before 2027.
Xi has already ordered his military to be prepared to invade Taiwan, a self-ruled island nation that the CCP regards as a renegade province, by 2027.
While some China experts believe that if the United States escalates its countermeasures against the CCP, Xi Jinping will retreat on issues such as Taiwan and the South China Sea, Yuan himself holds that this view “contradicts the fundamental political logic of the tyrannical CCP regime.”
Yuan said that China’s domestic economy is already in acute crisis, and with the added pressures of the trade war and diplomatic confrontations that are likely only to increase with Trump in the White House, China’s economic crisis is expected to deepen.
“Xi Jinping is currently facing an extremely dire situation, both domestically and internationally,” he told The Epoch Times. “He has no room to retreat.
“In this context, Xi Jinping’s only possible way out—or the way he perceives it—would be to initiate a war over Taiwan to fully counter the pressure from the United States.
“If he abandons his strategic response, the CCP will be in a completely passive position in its geopolitical struggle with the United States.”
According to Yuan, “this passive state could lead to a complete collapse of the CCP” because of domestic discontent.
“Therefore, the international community must be prepared for the possibility of the Xi Jinping regime desperately fighting back in its most critical moments, potentially resorting to reckless actions as a last-ditch effort,” he said.
Trump to Investigate Coronavirus Origin
The law professor, who has been analyzing China affairs for years, predicts that based on the political record of the incoming U.S. administration, a direct confrontation between Trump and Xi is inevitable.
“[The administration] will certainly hold the CCP accountable for the harm caused to the international community and humanity over the years,” he said. “The investigation into the Wuhan virus is an integral part of the overall U.S. strategic deployment.”
He pointed to Trump’s fundamental goal of creating a “golden age” for the United States and “making America great again.”
“The only force that can stop this is the global expansion of [the] CCP’s tyranny, the authoritarian expansion strategy that Xi Jinping’s regime is currently executing,” he said.
“This means that for Trump to achieve his political vision of making America great again, he must completely defeat Xi Jinping’s global expansion strategy of communist authoritarianism.
“Therefore, the conflict between the U.S. and China has become inevitable.”
Frank Fang contributed to this report.