Inside Maye Musk’s Cozy Relationship With China | EUROtoday

In January, with a nationwide ban on TikTok looming, tons of of 1000’s of individuals within the US started flocking to a different Chinese social media app known as RedNote—solely to seek out that Maye Musk, Elon Musk’s mom, had already established a comparatively giant viewers on the platform. Maye, who has grow to be a celeb in her personal proper in China over the previous few years, had over 600,000 followers on RedNote when the flood of Americans arrived.

“I need to find the block button,” one American person commented below Maye’s newest video on the time, which has obtained over 10,000 likes. “I can’t believe I’m witnessing American people confronting Musk’s mom to her face,” one other remark in Chinese reads. Shortly afterward, Maye’s remark part on RedNote was closed for a number of weeks. New feedback didn’t begin displaying up once more till early February.

The incident represented a uncommon second when the parallel public photos Maye Musk has created for herself collided. In China, the 76 year-old has constructed a largely apolitical popularity as a “silver influencer,” vogue mannequin for native manufacturers, and ebook writer who frequently garners optimistic protection in Chinese state media, The New York Times beforehand reported. Last week, she made one other journey to China, this time to town of Wuxi, the place she was invited to look at a drone present, promoted conventional crafts, and posed with a particular Tesla mannequin that is available in totally different colorways bought solely in Asia.

But within the US, Maye’s profession has more and more converged with Elon’s as her son gained unprecedented energy and affect over the US federal authorities. Since President Trump received reelection, Maye has traveled on Air Force One, sat subsequent to Melania Trump at a Mar-a-Lago banquet, and attended a luncheon with Ivanka Trump, whereas additionally frequently firing off posts on X about US politics, in accordance with a WIRED evaluate of her social media presence.

In some ways, Maye seems to be attempting to straddle the positive line between her political engagement within the US and her enterprise dealings in China and different overseas nations. That endeavor has grow to be extra fraught over the past two months as Trump started radically reshaping US overseas coverage, together with imposing new tariffs on China. “There’s a heightened risk now for American business people traveling to China and that continues to increase, especially as tensions in the trade war will increase,” says Holden Triplett, co-founder of Trenchcoat Advisors and a former senior FBI official posted in Beijing.

Maye Musk’s enterprise supervisor and Creative Artists Agency, her expertise consultant company in China, didn’t reply to requests for remark from WIRED.

Even earlier than she started touring frequently to China, Maye publicly supported Elon and Tesla’s enterprise endeavors within the nation. In 2015, she retweeted a put up by Elon during which he talked about assembly with Chinese chief Xi Jinping. “Great trip to China seeing President Xi … Pic w China team in state garden,” the tweet reads, which was later deleted from Elon’s profile.