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Elon Musk is facing backlash after the tech billionaire and self-proclaimed free speech advocate met with China’s President Xi Jinping.<\/p>\n
Dissent and freedom of speech are notoriously controlled or even crushed in China leading many to question Musk’s meeting with the leader in San Francisco as part of the APEC summit.<\/p>\n
Musk posted a picture of the two men shaking hands on X (formerly Twitter) captioned: “May there be prosperity for all”.<\/p>\n
However, the move was immediately condemned by many on the site – Musk has promised to turn X into a bastion of free speech.<\/p>\n
One user tweeted: “As a self-proclaimed ‘Free speech absolutist’, I’m sure you criticised the Chinese dictator for the horrendous record on free speech and human rights violations, among other things.”<\/p>\n
Another added: “There is no prosperity where free speech is absent.”<\/p>\n
Ahead of his meeting with the Chinese President, Musk told state news agency Xinhua that he was looking forward to meeting Xi Jinping again.<\/p>\n
He said: “I’m looking forward to meeting – we met once briefly. I look forward to meeting again.”<\/p>\n
In 2018, Tesla became the first foreign car maker to set up shop in China without requiring a Chinese partner – 30 percent of car sales in China are electric vehicles compared to the US’s seven percent.<\/p>\n
Musk regularly travels to China, most recently in June, but it’s unclear when the tech billionaire met Xi in the past.<\/p>\n
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