Elon Musk has snubbed India, postponing his earlier scheduled visit to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi, before flying to China to meet Premier Li Qiang.

Musk was originally scheduled to meet Modi from 21 to 22 April 2024. When Musk posted on X “Looking forward to meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi in India!” it elicited a same-day response from China’s state-owned propaganda mouthpiece Global Times, which poured cold water on India’s ability to attract investments from Tesla.

Global Times said that India’s infrastructure is not ready for battery electric vehicles (BEVs), and it’s unstable, cold-heavy power grid poses an obstacle for EVs. That’s a very odd thing to say considering that both BYD and MG are expanding into India’s nascent market for BEVs.

Global Times is owned the Chinese Communist Party’s main newspaper People’s Daily.

Also read: Tesla's Autopilot vs Enhanced Autopilot vs FSD - What's the difference and how should you choose?

On Sunday, Musk posted on X, “Honored to meet with Premier Li Qiang. We have known each other now for many years, since early Shanghai days,” with an accompanying screen capture of a broadcast by Chinese state-owned media CCTV.

Following the meeting with the Chinese premiere, Bloomberg reported that China is lifting restrictions on Tesla’s Full Self Driving (FSD) feature, and that Tesla will partner with Baidu for in-car map services on Chinese market Tesla vehicles.

Baidu is China’s equivalent to Google, while FSD is the highest level of Tesla’s ‘Auto Pilot’ driving assistance function. Despite its claimed abilities to make automatic lane changing and exiting highway ramps, FSD is legally still a Level 2 semi-autonomous driving feature.

Currently, FSD is still banned in China due to security concerns and local regulations barring storage of user data outside of China. Tesla vehicles are also banned from driving in certain locations deemed sensitive by the Chinese government, due to concerns that Tesla’s built-in cameras may transmit images back to the US.

China has yet to make a formal announcement on lifting these restrictions, but Tesla investors consider this to be a done deal, pushing Tesla stocks to a 30-day high, closing at USD 194 yesterday, up 11 percent.

The rollout of FSD in China will unlock new revenue streams that Tesla desperately needs.

In Malaysia, FSD costs RM 32,000 but the service is still not available here. Why is it offered to customers then? Because that’s just how Tesla works, so fans can pre-pay for a future service.