Elon Musk Pleases His Communist Chinese Overlords by Posting Ancient Poem to Social Media

Lucas NolanNovember 2, 2021

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk recently tweeted an ancient Chinese poem about two brothers fighting as Tesla works hard to further develop its business in China. The social media post, which was mirrored on Musk’s Chinese social media account, was met with widespread approval in China.

Bloomberg reports that Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk recently tweeted a Chinese poem about two brothers fighting out of jealousy, adding in English, “Humankind.” The meaning behind the tweet has caused much debate across Twitter and the Chinese social media network Weibo.

Elon Musk shades his eyes in front of a Tesla

Humankind
煮豆燃豆萁
豆在釜中泣
本是同根生
相煎何太急

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 2, 2021

The poem describes the story of two brothers from a royal family during China’s Three Kingdoms period and is commonly taught in Chinese primary schools as a lesson about getting along and working together. The direct translation of the poem reads:

Beanstalks are ignited to boil beans
The beans in the pot cry out
We are born of the same root
Why should we incinerate each other with such impatience?

Some believe that Musk’s tweet refers to the rival dog-themed cryptocurrencies Shiba Inu and Dogecoin, which Musk had tweeted about earlier in the week.

Musk’s use of a popular Chinese poem to describe the rivalry is unsurprising as the Tesla CEO has been working hard to appease China as the company plans to expand across the market.

Spectators and participants fill Tiananmen Square during 50th anniversary celebration for the founding of the People’s Republic of China. The annual National Day holiday takes place on October 1st. (Photo by David Butow/Corbis via Getty Images)

Musk has been highly complimentary of China since opening factories in the country. During a pre-recorded stream at the World New Energy Vehicle Congress, Musk said that Chinese automakers were the “most competitive in the world.” At the World Internet Conference recently, Musk called China a “global leader in digitization.”

Musk also stated: “My frank observation is that China spends a lot of resources and efforts applying the latest digital technologies in different industries, including the automobile industry, making China a global leader in digitalization.” Musk added: “Tesla will continue to expand our investment and R&D efforts in China.”

This isn’t the first time that Musk has greatly praised China. In July, Musk and the official Tesla account on the Chinese social media website Weibo celebrated the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China.

Breitbart News reported at the time:

Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk and his electric car company Tesla have shared full-blown praise of the Chinese Communist Party on China’s equivalent to Twitter, Breitbart News can reveal.

The verified accounts for Elon Musk and top Chinese Tesla representatives on the Chinese micro-blogging site Weibo have all been adorned with personalised backgrounds celebrating the one hundred year anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP):

The background celebrating the centenary of the CCP does not appear to have been a mandatory feature by the Chinese site, as other users, including one of Tesla’s main accounts, do not feature the communist banner art.

Therefore it is likely that someone who manages Elon Musk and other Tesla social media accounts in China made the decision to honour the murderous regime.

In January, Musk praised China for being “more responsible” than the United States. In an interview with Business Insider, Tesla CEO Elon Musk was questioned about the “ethical limitations” of operating in China. Musk stated that so far he has had a positive experience with Chinese government officials and stated that they could “possibly” be more “more responsible” to their citizen’s happiness than America is.

In July of 2020, Musk stated in an interview that “China rocks in my opinion”, adding: “The energy in China is great. People there – there’s like a lot of smart, hard-working people.” He further called people in the United States “entitled” and “complacent.” He suggested that the U.S. has “been winning for too long” with technology, and added: “When you’ve been winning too long you take things for granted.”

While Musk has been tweeting and deleting earnestly over the past week, it appears that he may not be paying too much attention to Tesla. Last week, it was reported that the rental car firm Hertz had placed an order for 100,000 Tesla Model 3 vehicles, however, since then Musk has tweeted that the order is not firm and that “no contract has been signed yet.”