Self-proclaimed “free speech absolutist” and Tesla CEO Elon Musk has promised the company will uphold “core socialist values” in China following a price war in the country’s electric vehicle market, the Financial Times reported. Tesla was the only foreign carmaker to sign the joint letter pledge with 16 manufacturers at an auto industry conference in Shanghai on Thursday. “Failing to comply with ‘core socialist values’ has been frequently used by authorities to punish speeches that are critical of the Chinese government,” a senior China researcher with Human Rights Watch told the Times. Musk’s own social media platform, Twitter, is banned in the country, and he has been criticized for refraining from tweeting while visiting China. The seemingly at-odds commitment came after Tesla cut Model 3 and Model Y prices to compete with the growing domestic EV industry. In 2018, Musk revealed he was “actually a socialist” in a tweet, writing “true socialism seeks greatest good for all.” Tesla declined to comment to the Times on the pledge in China.
