Chapter 383: Randolph’s Label
Compared to the so-called “China Experts” in Washington, Musk is the real China Expert, no matter from which perspective you look at it.
Although he didn’t teach in Foshan, a third- or fourth-tier city in China, like Tim Walz, Kamala’s vice presidential pick for the campaign, his understanding of China is in the present continuous.
He understands 2024’s China, not last century’s China, not China’s from ten years ago.
He understands this country’s production capacity, manufacturing potential, engineer community, consumption power, that is, the essence of this country, the source of its unprecedented competitiveness internationally in recent years.
Musk understands a new China.
After landing in Shanghai this time and inspecting the Tesla factory, Musk sat in the Tesla special car with his eyes closed to rest, and sitting in front besides the driver was Tom Zhu, president of Greater China.
Moments later, he opened his mouth and said, “Tom, this trip to China feels different from my 2020 visit and my 2023 visit.
China is more confident.”
Musk naturally wouldn’t be like those YouTubers who, after the 144-hour visa-free policy was introduced, came to China as special forces tourists and exclaimed over Shanghai’s skyscrapers like bloggers, thinking there’s something special about China’s infrastructure.
He observes people.
Skyscrapers, Americans had them over a hundred years ago, core areas like Silicon Valley’s skyscrapers and tech content are no worse than China’s.
What Musk feels is the difference in people.
“Despite salaries not having essential changes compared to four years ago, we still follow Tesla’s global strategy, with fixed annual salary adjustments to ensure competitiveness locally, to keep up with inflation, to give our employees basic welfare assurance.
Many things haven’t changed, but China’s employees are more composed than before, this spirit and energy can’t be acted out.”
Musk is of course a Patriot, and what he loves is definitely America, not China.
For him, China has huge commercial interests, but he can’t entrust his life and fortune to China, no matter what.
So no matter how well China develops, for Musk, the benefits he gains from it are limited.
It’s even not necessarily good for him; the development of China’s New Energy Vehicle Industry brings Tesla’s sales volume decline.
China’s local telecommunications industry protection, local internet industry protection, strict local regulations on networks, all prevent Starlink equipment from entering the China market on a large scale.
If China were like Europe, composed of many countries, rich but not united, with market but no need to protect local industries, such a China would be far more in line with his interests than the current China.
So after observing the changes in this ancient country through the spirit and energy of China employees as a lens, he felt mixed feelings inside, relieved that America made the right choice and didn’t elect Kamala.
Musk really can’t imagine, if Kamala became US President, how America would compete with China under the current situation.
Don’t say the US President has little power; if you want to change, to contain deep state, to reform, the US President’s power is indeed small, very limited in what can be done, often checked by the entire massive civil servant system.
But if you want to dance with Commissioner Smiths, everyone happily hollowing out this country, hollowing out Congressional budget, spending money in inexplicable places, you’ll find the US President’s power is infinitely great.
The entire civil servant system will become your boost, you are an omnipotent god.
If Kamala is elected, she is obviously the latter.
A president whose influence comes entirely from Donkey Party, identity, and past America system inertial support, has neither the ability nor the will to do the former.
So for America, what good does a president like Kamala bring? Of course none; past existing problems will only become more severe, even if she only serves four years as president, it will make problems accumulate to an irrecoverable state.
Big T tosses and turns, but tossing is better than waiting to die; strongmen all follow this logic, actively seeking change is much better than passively waiting to die; Musk also follows strongman logic, adhering to strongman thinking rules.
“Yes, I have this feeling too; in the past, our employees were always very active and enthusiastic about going to work in America local.
Internally there are some position adjustment plans, offering some to go to America local, even to traditional red states like Austin in Texas, or even to the Gigafactory in Mexico, their enthusiasm was very high.” Tom replied.
Tesla originally planned to build a Gigafactory in Mexico, 20 times the size of the Shanghai Gigafactory, but later because Big T claimed during the campaign to impose 100% or even 200% tax on cars produced in Mexico, Tesla’s Mexico factory plan was directly forced to halt.
Tom was talking about the past situation.
Then Tesla in America local also has two factories, Austin in Texas and Fremont in California; without doubt, California is much friendlier for minority ethnic groups.
“But now, especially since last year, enthusiasm has clearly declined.
Backend data also shows clues; in the past, when positions in America local were released, the application-to-admission ratio here was generally over 30:1, now at most 15:1, more and more China employees tend to stay in China.” Tom Zhu used data as evidence.
Musk still didn’t open his eyes, “This is the change brought by expectations.” His voice clearly reached Tom Zhu’s ears.
“Yes, a good expectation is too important for a country, for a company.
It means a decline in governance cost.” Musk said again.
Governance has costs.
Taking a company as example, good expectations can slow employee turnover; only when you actively do layoffs will employees not proactively resign, no situation where you finally train employees and they immediately go to the marketplace to demand higher pay.
Employee stability is just a small part of company governance cost, also including work focus, work effect, work enthusiasm, and many other aspects.
The positive effects brought by good expectations can’t be quantified with simple numbers.
Many things can’t be quantified with numbers; if everything can be quantified.
McNamara wouldn’t have messed up the Vietnam War like that, but its role is huge.
Same for companies, same for countries.
One more thing, the relationship between stock market and economy isn’t that strong; stock market is more a barometer of whether future funds will be loose.
Tom Zhu didn’t respond; he knew when to respond and when not to.
Musk asked again, “I’m meeting Randolph tomorrow; tell me, what kind of person do you think he is?”
Tom Zhu thought for a moment and first gave a general definition: “A person with great wisdom; compared to businessman or scientist, I think he is more like a politician.”
“Politician?” Musk repeated the term.
“That’s right; considering his age, considering his achievements, on many things he shows qualities and behaviors completely different from past similar characters’ performance.
He shows extraordinary restraint in many fields.
Generally speaking, China entrepreneurs emphasize wanting it all; when I have no advantage, I compete, I win; when I have advantage, even more so use the advantage to kill off competitors, swallow profits exclusively.
Like BYD, it has technological advantage, so it chooses to slowly spread tentacles to the entire industrial chain, either investing or establishing subsidiaries itself, maximally expanding its share in the entire industrial chain; for suppliers still needed, adopt Di chain method to increase their capital cost, occupy one more day of working cash, they won’t settle for half a day.
They embody classical capitalism’s plunder.
Including one of Randolph’s core partners, Tencent, also went through a long ‘want it all’ phase, warned, named, disliked by users, only later changed to flexible investment and shareholding to expand fields involved.
Randolph is completely different from them; Deep Red can rival OpenAI’s GPT globally, even performs better in some fields; they could fully use this app to build an artificial intelligence-based ecosystem.
I believe Randolph just needs to have this thought, money, people, and resources will naturally be provided to him.
Randolph doesn’t do that; his positioning of Deep Red is tools, anyone can use this tool; since Tencent you cooperated pleasantly with me before, no grudges between us, then I’ll give this tool to Tencent to use.
He pursues influence, influence in China’s massive system.
Tencent is his handle, his tentacle; China state-owned enterprises are similarly his handle, his tentacle.
He has no shadow of any China entrepreneur or scientist; the qualities he shows are completely different from them.
So from my perspective, politician is a more precise label.
Tom Zhu then brought up that the deputy director of the frontier technology center was taken over by Lin Ran’s Father; after roughly explaining the situation, he said wistfully, “This matter didn’t cause a splash on Chinese Internet; everyone thinks it’s just a negligible trivial matter.
Chinese Citizens are very tolerant of the rare selfishness Randolph showed in this matter.
But in the eyes of some grassroots and mid-level civil servants I’ve contacted in Shanghai, this is the awareness only a veteran who has mixed in officialdom for many years would have.
This is the sensitivity shown by a top politician.
Musk asked, “Could this just be his selfishness; your guess is a bit superfluous?”
Tom Zhu explained, “No, Elon.
A master-level figure in the field of mathematics, since founding Apollo Technology, has never made a mistake; even Jack Ma would have moments of being carried away, but Randolph, even on the Moon, has never said a wrong word, never shown his arrogant side.
I don’t think this is intentional.
Moreover, from one side, it shows this is his careful planning: his parents divorced early, Randolph’s relationship with his father isn’t good; emotionally, Randolph doesn’t need to compensate his father this way, instead his father should compensate him.
When a person who never makes mistakes suddenly shows such an obvious mistake, there’s only one possibility: it’s intentional.
After Tom finished speaking, the car fell silent again.
Musk thought to himself, politician? Interesting.
He’s seen quite a few of China’s new generation tycoons, even unconventional ones like Sun Ge, he’s heard of.
But a China young tycoon with the politician label, this is the first time he’s heard of it.
Politics is art.
Lin Ran’s art wasn’t honed in 2020, it was honed in the 1960 White House.
Cold War era politicians Kennedy brothers, Lyndon Johnson, Nixon, and Kremlin’s Nikita, Leonard, Kosygin, taught by word and deed plus practical confrontation training.
White House politicians are teachers, Kremlin politicians are practical opponents.
Under mathematics master’s thinking, Lin Ran gradually developed this style.
“Randolph, I’ve long admired your name.”
Under the Apollo Technology building, witnessed by numerous reporters, Lin Ran met Musk.
On-site first-hand news was synchronously posted on Weibo and Twitter.
“Elon, hello.” Lin Ran said while shaking hands.
If at first someone said Lin Ran is China’s Musk, such voices gradually faded after Apollo Technology landed at Lunar South Pole, and with Moon Base construction to today’s scale, such voices have vanished on Chinese Internet.
Also only on external network, some people still think so; these people’s deep inner thoughts are, how can a Chinese person be even more awesome than White People? By saying you’re China’s *** to indirectly elevate the benchmark object.
“Very pleased to meet Elon; today’s meeting with Elon, we will divide into a closed-door meeting and a public dialogue program, which will be live broadcast throughout.
Now is closed-door meeting time, please wait in the meeting room.” After Lin Ran finished facing the reporters, he turned and left.
Apollo Technology staff guided Musk to Lin Ran’s private office.
Musk’s security team waited outside like the reporters.
“Elon, just as the broker told you, I hope to make a transaction with you.” Lin Ran said.
Musk naturally understood the subtext: Yanjing hopes to make a transaction with Washington.
“Please speak.” Musk gestured.
“America loosens semiconductor technology export to Japan, we hope to obtain Japan semiconductor related technology in bulk; in exchange, China’s Moon laboratory opens to America companies, and also the semiconductor technology accumulation from phenomena observed on the Moon in the past is opened together.
We need to obtain purchase rights for Japan semiconductor technology related.
In addition, as exchange sincerity, in the next ten years, China’s Moon Base expansion scope will be limited to Lunar South Pole.”
Others are empty, what Moon technology, Lunar Ultra-Low Temperature Laboratory, do they have value? Of course
But compared to China obtaining Japan semiconductor technology, completely unbound in semiconductor field, the chips are completely unequal for both sides.
For America it’s just icing on the cake; for China it’s sending charcoal in snowy weather, another shackle America can impose is fewer.
So these are add-ons, the truly valuable is the last one.
But rather than chips, it’s more like a threat.
