'Pro-Free Speech'? CCP Gives Elon Musk Tax Exemption after Pro-Taiwan Takeover Comments

“To make a long story short, he basically said that Taiwan should ‘re-join’ mainland China. . .So, right after that, China un-taxed—removed the tax burden off Elon Musk.” —The China Show 

There’s nothing says “I’m pro-free speech” like openly pandering to an authoritarian surveillance state, am I right? Well, Elon Musk would appear to agree with that, at least, based on his recent actions. As conservatives and other canceled individuals rejoice at Musk’s Twitter takeover (including his firing of executives who should be fired) and look forward to what is hopefully a freer future on the platform, Musk’s pontificating on his dedication to free speech is (as usual) ringing a little hollow. And that hollow ring has echoes of China.

Musk may be thoroughly sincere in his desire to make Twitter more free. I would be cautious about trusting a man who wants to implant brain chips in people and create a full “brain interface,” especially since he could very well turn Twitter into his own metaverse complete with direct connection to your brain, but I’m told I’m a cynic. In any case, Musk’s willingness to suck up to a regime running the most authoritarian surveillance state on the planet—the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)—would seem to argue for a little healthy distrust. And evidence presented a couple weeks ago by the hosts of The China Show (hosted by Winston and Matt) supports my argument.

“[Matt:] To make a long story short, he basically said that Taiwan should ‘re-join’ mainland China…but they should be given, like, a high degree of autonomy. And China ran with it…they loved it. And then everyone’s like, ‘What are you doing?  What, do you mean like Hong Kong? You know, the territory that they just steam-rolled?’…

[Matt:] So, right after that, China un-taxed—removed the tax burden off Elon Musk for his production of Teslas in China.”

Two other interesting facts about doing business in China are that the government directly surveils and can access any information it requests from companies, and China practices “civil-military fusion”—that is, everything in the economic and tech spheres is accessible to the Chinese military.