Musk and Dimon Missed an Opportunity in China
Corporate titans watch their words too carefully when meeting top Chinese leaders. They need to deliver a much louder message.
Musk leaving Beijing.
Photographer: Jade Gao/AFP/Getty Images
Until Chinese leaders agreed this week to reschedule Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s trip to Beijing, they had recently shown a lot more enthusiasm for meeting Western corporate titans than US officials. It’s easy to see why. When the likes of Apple Inc.’s Tim Cook, JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s Jamie Dimon and Tesla Inc.’s Elon Musk troop to Beijing, they tend to hail the potential of the Chinese economy and decry any thought of decoupling from it. “The interests of the United States and China are intertwined like conjoined twins,” Musk said during his visit, at least according to the Chinese Foreign Ministry.
Privately if not publicly, though, those business leaders should start delivering a far tougher message.