Africa -China Review Africa -China Cooperation and Transformation
Published: Feb 02,2024
By Staff Writer
American billionaire and CEO of Tesla and founder of Space, X Elon Musk, confessed that China automakers would ‘demolish’ rivals without trade barrier. Musk seemed to be pondering the future of his Tesla where he sees his company could come trailing after Chinese automakers like BYD, which have upped the game in production of EV cars and arriving at the market at a lower price than that of his Tesla. BYD has now surpassed Tesla as the world’s number one (pure battery) EV automaker and there are numerous other Chinese companies that will soon claim their part on the market share.
Musk who opened up a Tesla first overseas production plant in Shanghai-China in 2018, seems to have been taken by surprise by the emerging high competition from China EV automakers like BYD, forcing him to cut prices on his China produced vehicles. However, for the long run, on the future of Tesla share market, Musk is calling for more tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles that inter the America market. Musk’s call for protectionism is contrary to world trade rules, but the US administration has always used tariff barriers to stifle competition with Chinese products.
Chinese car exports to the US are subjected to 25% tax. During the Trump administration trade wars escalated between US and China, where the former began setting tariffs and other trade barriers on Chinese goods with the goal of forcing China to make changes to what the U.S. says are “longstanding unfair trade practices and intellectual property theft.”
Tariffs and trade restrictions imposed by the US on Chinese Products failed to reduce U.S. trade deficits or alter China’s position as the leading global exporter. In part, this was facilitated by the COVID pandemic that provided a major boost to China’s exports to the West.
China in response to US allegations of unfair trade practices called for call continued dialogue to iron out differences as the two worlds’ largest economies cannot manage to close their markets without trading with each other.
The fears raised by Elon Musk is just a tip of the iceberg on China’s rise and overtaking US and other western countries in producing competitive EV car brands like BYD, but also in other innovative areas such as artificial Intelligence(AI).
China is increasing its lead over the US in AI patent filings, underscoring the country’s determination to shape and influence a technology that could have broad implications for the world’s richest economies. A report released by the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD, 2023) outlines that China aims to surpass the West in AI research by 2025 and become the global leader in AI by 2030. AI is a top national priority for China.
