Elon Musk Praises China And Underestimates U.S.

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk Friday called China's people "smart" and "hardworking" while lamenting the "complacent" nature of Americans.

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During an interview with Automotive News, Musk praised China´s mentality and its electric vehicles strategy

 "The energy in China is great," Musk said. There's like a lot of smart, hardworking people. And they're not entitled, they're not complacent," he said.

 "I see in the U.S. increasingly much more complacency and entitlement especially in places like the Bay Area, and L.A. and New York."

In 2019, the Chinese government helped Tesla secure loans worth about $1.6 billion to build and begin manufacturing vehicles at the company's new Shanghai plant.

This year, city officials helped Tesla to quickly resume normal operations after the plant was affected by the COVID-19-derived shutdowns.

Regarding this support, Musk stressed that “Tesla has had the least government support of any car company."

 "The United States, and especially like California and New York, you've been winning for too long," Musk added.

"When you've been winning too long you take things for granted. So, just like some pro sports team they win a championship you know a bunch of times in a row, they get complacent and they start losing."