BEIJING (SCMP): Elon Musk has some bad blood with China’s Swifties.
It all started hours after the prime-time ABC debate between US Vice-President Kamala Harris and former US president Donald Trump.
Taylor Swift, post-debate, issued a ringing endorsement of Harris on Instagram. The pop star also signed off with the label “Childless Cat Lady” – a direct jab at controversial comments Senator J.D. Vance, Trump’s running mate, made about childless people.
That’s where Musk comes in. The Tesla and SpaceX chief took to X, the platform he owns, where he posted a comment hitting out at Swift.
“Fine Taylor ... you win ... I will give you a child and guard your cats with my life,” Musk wrote in an X post on Wednesday morning.
That post – which landed in the afternoon on Chinese time – did not go down well with China’s Swifties. A hashtag discussing Musk’s comments on Swift hit the “hot search” charts on Weibo, the country’s version of X, with more than 15 million views at press time.
And the Chinese Swifties did not hold back in their stinging criticism of Musk.
“What a ridiculous joke,” read a top comment from a Taylor Swift fan blog based in Jiangsu.
“‘I will give you a child?’ Who wants children from you?”
“This is a gorgeous woman. You don’t have even the slightest bit of respect for women,” read a post from another Taylor Swift blog based out of Tianjin.
“Taylor is getting criticised for absolutely no reason. I hope SpaceX rocket launches always fail.”
Other Weibo comments criticised Musk for his physical appearance and slammed him for commenting on Swift’s life choices.
Swift’s record-breaking Eras Tour did not schedule any shows in China. That said, Swift is no stranger to China. Her last public performance in China was in 2019 when she made an appearance at Alibaba’s 11.11 Countdown Gala. Alibaba is the owner of the South China Morning Post.
“You’ve always been so, so warm and supportive,” Swift told her Chinese fans during the performance.
Musk, too, has some Chinese fans. When he visited the country in May 2023, he was warmly welcomed and given the red carpet treatment, complete with a lavish 16-course meal.
Chinese social media was abuzz during Musk’s visit, with fans giving him the nickname “Brother Ma”, a play on Musk’s last name in Chinese, which is spelled with the Chinese character for horse.
Musk and representatives for Swift did not immediately respond to requests for comment sent outside regular business hours. - South China Morning Post
