Elon Musk is not like Amir Taaki, Edward Snowden or even Erik Voorhees. He is not even a Pavel Durov. Part of this comes from being focused on a hardware company that has to deal with more regulations, physical restrictions and government oversight. I'm not going to get into how Elon's father was a half-owner of a Zambian emerald mine. I don't consider it important when discussing the valuable contributions or moral travesties of Elon Musk. Individuals are responsible for their actions only.
Short Recap of Situation
I don't want to waste people's time with too much history. If you want to learn more about China from independent sources that lived on the ground, the best channels I can present you are the follwoing:
If you don't mind some bias against China (there are plenty of good reasons to be so), I can recommend China Uncensored which selectively report bad things about China. They are a mostly reliable source of news. Just keep in mind they are mostly focused around reporting on the bad things about CCP.
Chinese Threats from Few Days Ago
When I first heard of the news that Elon Musk suggested Taiwan (a sovereign country that is far better than most highly developed western nations under most metrics) should become another Hong Kong with a bit more autonomy than Hong Kong. How is this different from asking Ukraine to be a Russian colony ruled by a leader appointed by Putin?
Chinese Power Over Elon Musk's Companies + Supply Chain + Raw Materials
Keep in Mind That Taiwan Has TSMC
When it comes to high end chip manufacturing, TSMC is practically a monopoly. Even if competitors match the quality and the bleeding edge of technology, they may not meet the scale of production for a years to come. In simple terms, the future of Earth's technology depends on TSMC and Taiwan. There is simply no other way to put it. So far Taiwan has been neutral (with some exceptions related to sanctions). Under China, there will not be such neutrality. There won't even be a pretension of neutrality.
Asianometry is the best YouTube channel I have found to delve into chip manufacturing covering history, economics, engineering and many other aspects. You may have come across me sharing some of Asianometry's videos on my articles or on
I have not seen all of his content. You don't have to either. As a sample you can watch this video as it is tangentially relevant to this article:
A Good Thing About Elon Musk
This is not some article made to portray Elon Musk as another Bill Gates or Mark Zuckerberg. This is about criticizing a disgusting moral failure of the guy while exploring the potential incentives/leashes around the situation.
In fact, he measure pretty much every major decision by whether or not it brings the day when we have a self sustainable colony on Mars sooner or later
The above quote from someone who has worked closely with Elon Musk is both wonderful and terrifying. A self sustainable colony on Mars is something we must achieve. I'm 100% onboard with that. Basing every major decision around that instead of a value system such as freedom, Non Aggression Principle etc. could mean innocence murdered or freedom/privacy lost is something that is on the table for negotiation. If the quote depicts Elon's thought process accurately, he is a man of good ends with flexible values.
Elon Musk is no Klaus Schwab. But he seems to be willing to make compromises with a Klaus Schwab. That is not something I can respect in any human being!