Elon Musk has been branded a “national security risk” by former U.S. army general Lieutenant General Russel L. Honoré, who highlighted Musk’s history of appeasing and praising the Chinese Communist Party and his multiple business deals with the party, particularly in the modern space race. Via The Independent:

In a scathing op-ed, published in The New York Times, Honoré noted that Musk and his company SpaceX already face federal reviews for failing to provide details of meetings with foreign leaders, but said that such infractions were “just the beginning of my worries.”

Musk has previously borrowed at least $1.4 billion from banks controlled by the Chinese government to help build a “gigafactory” in Shanghai for Tesla. The factory was responsible for more than half of Tesla’s global deliveries in the third quarter of 2024.

“China does not tend to give things away,” Honoré wrote. “The country’s laws stipulate that the Communist Party can demand intelligence from any company doing business in China, in exchange for participating in the country’s markets. “This means Mr. Musk’s business dealings in China could require him to hand over sensitive classified information, learned either through his business interests or his proximity to President-elect Donald Trump.”