Elon Musk left Shanghai on Thursday, wrapping up a whistle-stop tour of China during which the billionaire met with high officers, praised the nation’s expertise improvement and visited Tesla’s Gigafactory.

China is one in every of Tesla’s most necessary markets for gross sales and manufacturing and Musk, through the years, has provided a lot of reward for the world’s second-largest financial system.

Musk’s go to to China, his first in three years, comes because the nation appears to be like to painting a pleasant surroundings for overseas enterprise amid geopolitical tensions with the U.S. and following years of strict Covid controls which have made the working surroundings tough.

This is what Musk did after arriving in Beijing on Tuesday.

Musk met with China’s International Minister Qin Gang on Tuesday.

Qin talked up the potential of the electrical car market in China which he mentioned “has broad prospects for improvement,” in line with an announcement from the Chinese language ministry.

Musk praised the Chinese language folks and China’s achievements. Tesla opposes “decoupling” and is keen to proceed to increase its enterprise in China, the assertion mentioned.

On Wednesday, Musk met with Jin Zhuanglong, China’s Minister of business and data expertise. The 2 sides mentioned “the event of latest vitality autos and clever networked autos,” in line with an announcement from the ministry.

On Thursday, Musk met with Chen Jining, the Shanghai social gathering secretary. Tesla’s Gigafactory is situated in Shanghai, its solely manufacturing web site in China and one of many world’s largest for the electrical carmaker.

Chen talked about Shanghai as a spot for worldwide enterprise, in line with an official assertion. Musk praised the success of the Shanghai Gigafactory and mentioned he’s hoping to proceed to extend cooperation with the town in varied areas, the assertion added.

Musk additionally met with China’s vice-premier Ding Xuexiang, one of many nation’s high officers, Reuters reported citing a supply acquainted with the matter. Ding is called a loyalist to Chinese language chief Xi Jinping. Ding is a part of the Politburo Standing Committee, a high governing physique led by Xi.

It’s not clear what was mentioned however the assembly highlights Musk’s shut relationships with high Chinese language politicians.

Musk additionally met with Zeng Yuqun, the chairman of CATL, the world’s largest electrical car battery firm and a Tesla provider, in line with native media experiences. A picture circulating in native media, which couldn’t be instantly verified by CNBC, confirmed Musk and Zeng strolling side-by-side in a resort.

In March, Bloomberg reported that Tesla was exploring constructing a battery plant within the U.S. in partnership with CATL.

CATL declined to remark and it was not clear what Musk and Zeng mentioned.

Musk visited Tesla’s Shanghai Gigafactory on Thursday, in line with a video posted by the corporate’s official account on the Chinese language Twitter-like service Weibo.

The billionaire gave a speech to the employees and praised them.

“It has been extremely spectacular how you may have been in a position to overcome so many difficulties and so many challenges,” Musk informed employees. “I inform folks all through the world, the vehicles we produce right here aren’t simply essentially the most environment friendly manufacturing, but additionally the best high quality.”

The Shanghai manufacturing unit has been key to the electrical carmaker’s growth into China.