Elon Musk Calls Chinese Government “More Responsible” To Its Citizens Than U.S.

Literally hours before it was reported that Alibaba’ Jack Ma has apparently been missing for the last two months, another well-known businessman relying on the resources of the Chinese state took an opportunity in an interview to call China “more responsible” than the U.S.

That businessman is none other than the U.S.’s “boy wonder” visionary, Elon Musk.

Musk – who had previously said that “China rocks” while taking a backhanded swipe at the U.S. workers as complacent – said during a new interview that China’s government had been “very responsive” to its people’s needs and happiness and suggested they could be “better” than the U.S., according to Express UK. China could be “more responsible” to people’s happiness than the U.S., Musk said. 

Musk said in the interview that working with Chinese government officials was a “positive experience”. He said: “When I meet with Chinese government officials, they’re always very concerned about this. Are people going to be happy about a thing? Is this going to actually serve the benefit of the people? It seems ironic, but even though you have sort of a single-party system, they really actually seem to care a lot about the well-being of the people. In fact, they’re maybe even more sensitive to public opinion than what I see in the US.”

When the issues of China’s human rights violations was raised, Musk responded:  “China doesn’t care about human rights. How could there ever be an equal and level playing field. Do you really see an opportunity for Western democracies to win?”

Back in August, Musk called the people of China “smart” and “hard working” while at the same time calling U.S. citizens “entitled” and “complacent”. He specifically called out both New York and California, states whose taxpayers have literally funded Tesla’s business with massive tax breaks amounting to billions. 

When asked about China as an EV strategy leader worldwide, Musk responded:  “China rocks in my opinion. The energy in China is great. People there – there’s like a lot of smart, hard working people. And they’re really — they’re not entitled, they’re not complacent, whereas I see in the United States increasingly much more complacency and entitlement especially in places like the Bay Area, and L.A. and New York.”

He then compared the U.S. to losing sports teams: “When you’ve been winning for too long you sort of take things for granted. The United States, and especially like California and New York, you’ve been winning for too long. When you’ve been winning too long you take things for granted. So, just like some pro sports team they win a championship you know a bunch of times in a row, they get complacent and they start losing.”

Recall, we have often brought up Musk’s ties to China here on Zero Hedge. We even asked back in April whether or not Musk risks becoming a Chinese asset. The automaker’s quick move to Shanghai and willingness to cozy up to the Chinese government has certainly raised interest amidst skeptics and short sellers.