China has set the stage for the international silent war between them and America. Their latest EV has come under some public scrutiny after a blogger posted a video regarding their new cars aerodynamics. Elon Musk made the ill-fated decision to retweet that video. The trade war between China and the United States has taken center stage and the two countries are at blows regarding tariffs. Donald Trump imposed huge tariffs on the the US’s trading partners before being forced to take it back. Except for China. The tariffs on China remain, leading to the current trade war we find ourselves in.
How has the United States and China ended up in a silent war?
During Donald Trump’s two presidential campaigns, he mentioned China a lot. He claimed that the Chinese have been treating America very unfairly and even went as far as to describe China as looting the US market. He has made no secret that when he became president for the second time, the United States government would impose heavy tariffs on the Chinese and anything they make.
Currently, the tariffs for Chinese made goods are sitting at 140%. China answered back with their own tariffs against American goods. China has their own versions of many American products and companies. Weibo is the Chinese answer to Twitter(X as Musk renamed it) and it is where the Chinese have shown that they can do without American made products.
After the disastrous effect that Trump’s tariffs had on the American economy, he has “reconsidered” his administrations position. China have doubled down and invested heavily in the EV market to compete against the American dominance of Tesla. That’s where the silent war comes in. The silence of the electric vehicle has meant that this new trade war is a silent one.
What kind of invitation has China offered to Elon Musk and Tesla?
Despite the Chinese posting a video that shows their new EV’s aerodynamics, a blogger felt the need to conduct his own aerodynamic tests that yielded different results to what the Chinese claimed. The problem is that Elon Musk retweeted the blogger’s video to his personal Twitter account, adding fuel to the fire of the new silent trade war that is happening.
The retweet gained so much attention that the Chinese manufacturer, Avatr has offered Elon Musk an open invitation to attend their next wind-tunnel tests. To which he has not commented, no surprise there. Elon Musk has made a career of stirring up controversy, he is clearly a believer of the old saying, even bad publicity is good publicity. And Tesla has a lot of bad publicity at the moment.
The EV sector is innovating and changing and Tesla is losing its grip on the market. At one point Tesla was the best hope the world had in achieving its zero-emission goals. But this new silent war between the two biggest manufacturers of EV’s is just the latest complication in the trade war between China and the US. The video claiming to disprove Avatr’s claims has since been removed.
Who will end up the winner between the US and China in the trade war?
Musk has been stirring controversy for some time now. His claims regarding his cars have always been viewed with a grain of salt. The trade war between China and US will likely come to some sort of resolution as the two countries have finally sat down to work out a deal. Musk has a vested interest in the two giants of industry finding a common ground as a big percentage of the components in his Tesla cars are made in China, as is most of the world’s tech. Who will win the silent trade war remains to be seen.
