Rubio is Right: We Must Stop U.S. Billionaires from Empowering China

At the outset of the new year, one of America's richest individuals arguably showed more allegiance to Chinese president Xi Jinping than to the United States of America. Elon Musk debuted a new Tesla showroom in the remote Xinjiang region of China—the same region where Chinese authorities have detained more than a million Uyghur Muslims in facilities reminiscent of Nazi concentration camps. In these facilities, Uyghur women are forced to undergo sterilization protocols, and the detainees are mandated to participate in rigorous "re-education" programs.

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), ranking member of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, accused Musk's company of covering up China's human rights abuses just weeks after President Joe Biden signed the senator's bipartisan Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, which imposed strict U.S. importation limits on the region. Rubio is right, and this isn't the first time Musk has been too friendly with China.

In July 2021, after Tesla faced recalls and business trouble in Beijing, its Twitter-happy CEO congratulated the Chinese Communist Party on its hundredth anniversary and the many "accomplishments" it has realized over the century. He encouraged people to visit the country to "to see for themselves."

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