But Tesla may struggle to keep up momentum. While many Western technology companies are already frozen out of China, those left are finding life increasingly difficult. 

Yahoo, LinkedIn and Fortnite are among the companies shutting down or limiting their services, citing increased regulatory scrutiny. Recently, Intel found itself apologising to the Chinese people for telling suppliers not to use products from Xinjiang, a requirement under new US measures responding to alleged human rights abuses in the region.

Sino Auto Insights’ Le says China’s ultimate goal is the rise of homegrown car manufacturers such as Nio, Xpeng and WM Motor, as well as battery companies such as the giant manufacturer CATL. Tesla, he says, was welcomed into the country to force the domestic firms to up their game.

“There’s this Chinese proverb about the catfish effect. You have this pond of fish that are fat, dumb and happy. And they throw this aggressive catfish in there in order to make the rest of the fish more aggressive, more competitive. So that’s exactly what they did with Tesla.”

Paul Triolo of the Eurasia Group argues there is unlikely to come a point at which Tesla is no longer useful to China. 

“Beijing sees having players like Apple and Tesla in China as a good thing. There’s a certain prestige and sense of being good for the business community that’s created by them.”

However, Musk’s company has had speed bumps in the country. Last year, local reports said Tesla cars had been banned from military installations in China over fears the cameras on its cars could be sending video feeds back to the US. Musk denied the Texas-based company had any incentive to do this, but soon agreed to start storing data locally in order to placate officials.

Musk has struck a more conciliatory tone with Chinese regulators than his notoriously abrasive stance with American ones, perhaps knowing he has more to lose. He has also vocally praised the country, calling it a global technology leader, which few US chief executives have been willing to do of late.

But Musk’s overtures have not been wholly successful. Last spring, Tesla faced a wave of criticism from government officials and state media after appearing to dismiss safety complaints, with the Communist Party’s top legal authority saying the company was “shirking responsibility”. Tesla swiftly apologised. 

Musk also found himself at odds with Beijing when it recently lodged a UN complaint over Starlink, the entrepreneur’s space internet service, saying its satellites had been involved in near misses with Chinese astronauts.

Ironically, Tesla’s bigger threat might be from the US where politicians have grown uneasy with Western businesses seeming to cosy up to China. Last week, after Tesla opened a showroom in Xinjiang, it sent Republican senator Marco Rubio fuming that “nationless corporations are helping the Chinese Communist Party cover up genocide and slave labour in the region”.

Both the Trump and Biden administrations have put brakes on the export of US semiconductor technology to China. While Eurasia Group’s Triolo says the White House may find it more difficult to do the same with electric vehicles due to climate imperatives, it might grow concerned about Tesla developing or storing artificial intelligence software in China related to its driverless car technology.

“The question would be, ‘Hey do you want China to get a hold of that technology? So it can drive its battle tanks without any drivers?’ I think they will look at that at some point.”

Before long, Musk could find himself doing a different kind of dance in China.