Public Statement – For immediate Release
15 September 2023
Contact: World Uyghur Congress www.uyghurcongress.org
+49 89 5432 1999 or [email protected]

On September 13, reports of Elon Musk stating that there were “two sides” to China’s repression of Uyghurs circulated online. Reports launched after Walter Isaacson, an American author and journalist, wrote in his book about a conversation between Elon Musk and Bari Weiss, former New York Times journalist. In this conversation, Musk said “that Twitter would indeed have to be careful about the words it used regarding China, because Tesla’s business could be threatened. China’s repression of the Uyghurs, he said, had two sides.”

The World Uyghur Congress condemns this statement, as Elon Musk is reproducing Chinese narrative propaganda and is known for his close ties to the CCP. In 2021 Musk’s electric car company Tesla came under fire for opening a showroom in Urumchi, East Turkistan despite multiple reports of state-imposed forced labour in the region. This week the billionaire also said that Taiwan “was an integral part of China”.

“There is only one side to the repressive policies, and it is that China is committing a genocide against Uyghurs and other Turkic peoples”, said World Uyghur Congress President, Dolkun Isa. “China has continuously tried to hide the truth from the world by using its economic power to lure countries and companies into being complicit. The CCP is known for spreading its propaganda and Musk chooses to reproduce this for his own economic benefit.”