Can Tom Zhu replicate Tesla's China success abroad?
Illustration by Luis Grañena
The most cited detail about Tom Zhu, the Tesla executive who runs the company’s China operations, is that he is extremely hard working — so much so that he slept at the company’s Shanghai Gigafactory during the Covid-19 lockdown to ensure that cars were still coming off the production line.
Zhu himself often references this; describing his team in China, he said, “We leave our families aside, and work day and night.” Nearly every person interviewed for this article also brough
Exclusive longform investigative journalism, Q&As, news and analysis, and data on Chinese business elites and corporations. We publish China scoops you won't find anywhere else.
A weekly curated reading list on China from David Barboza, Pulitzer Prize-winning former Shanghai correspondent for The New York Times.
A daily roundup of China finance, business and economics headlines.
We offer discounts for groups, institutions and students. Go to our Subscriptions page for details.
Can a central bank digital currency work? China was the first major economy to launch one and, despite several setbacks, is starting to see the digital yuan take off.
The journalist-turned-lawmaker talks about her book on four women coming of age in modern China, the end of optimism for the younger generations, and being the first Chinese-born British MP.
September 17th: Strategies for Identifying Military End Users
