Elon Musk’s APEC cancellation was so abrupt that stand-in John Kerry had ‘no idea’ why he pulled out; SpaceX founder is shown greeting Xi Jinping on Chinese state TV after backtracking on antisemitic post
SpaceX founder Elon Musk’s withdrawal from an APEC event on artificial intelligence was so abrupt that his deputy John Kerry was not even told the reason for the cancellation.
Musk withdrew from a planned on-stage “armchair conversation” on the emerging topic, despite visiting an event at the San Francisco meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Wednesday.
Kerry told DailyMail.com that he did not know why Musk suddenly had to withdraw.
“I have no idea” why he couldn’t attend, the former secretary of state said outside the Moscone Center, where President Biden hosted world leaders on Thursday.
“Mark just asked me” to participate, Kerry said of SalesForce CEO Marc Benioff.
Musk was in San Francisco on Wednesday and attended an event where CEOs, including Apple’s Tim Cook and Boeing Executive Vice President Stanley Deal, discussed with XI.
“I have no idea,” former Secretary of State John Kerry told DailyMail.com when asked why Elon Musk suddenly pulled out of a planned event at APEC. Billionaire Marc Benioff called Kerry to ask him to take the place of the founder of SpaceX
The richest man in the world was seen shaking hands with Xi on Chinese state television, hours after President Biden said he still considers Xi a dictator.
He did not leave APEC empty-handed. Xi told him yes supports Tesla’s development in Chinaaccording to a statement on the company’s Weibo account.
APEC said Musk’s name was removed from the 4:45 p.m. event due to a scheduling issue that prevented him from attending in person. He offered to deliver the speech online, but APEC declined.
The APEC meeting is a high-profile summit of 21 countries, expected to bring as many as 30,000 people to the Bay Area this week, including Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Elon Musk was in San Francisco and attended a CEO event where he greeted Chinese President Xi Jinping
Kerry replaced Elon Musk at an event with Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) CEO Summit
Elon Musk, pictured on November 2 in conversation with British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. The Tesla founder was scheduled to speak on a panel on AI and the future in San Francisco at 4:45 p.m., but Musk’s name was removed from the docket
Musk was pulled from the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) CEO’s speaking schedule after a scheduling conflict and was replaced by John Kerry
APEC CEO Summit 2023 said in a statement: “The session ‘A Summit Spotlight 1:1 Conversation on AI and the Future’ will now feature Marc Benioff, Chairman and CEO of Salesforce, in conversation with John Kerry, Special Presidential Envoy of the USA for Climate.
“Elon Musk had a schedule change that prevented him from attending the 2023 APEC CEO Summit.
“We are grateful for his offer to join the session remotely, but all speakers agreed that participation would take place in person.
“We look forward to Elon joining us at a future APEC CEO Summit.”
Joe Biden hosted a $40,000-per-seat gala in San Francisco last night with Chinese President Xi Jinping as “guest of honor.”
Top leaders at the dinner surrounding the APEC meeting with Xi included Tim Cook of Apple and Executive Vice President of Boeing Stanley Deal.
Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, SpaceX and
According to multiple reports, he left before dinner started.
Musk was not on the list of company attendees and representatives at the gala, according to a schedule of the event obtained by DailyMail.com.
Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff also greeted Xi during cocktail hour but did not stay for dinner.
Also not on the program, but present at Wednesday evening’s expensive dinner, were executives from Pfizer, Nike and FedEx. Former California Governor Jerry Brown also paid the premium to attend.
The soiree was held at the Hyatt Regency in San Francisco, California, with a price tag of $40,000 per seat.
Other privately held corporate executives who attended the dinner included executives at Nike, Pfizer and FedEx. Elon Musk stopped by for cocktail hour to chat with Xi, but didn’t stay for dinner
On Wednesday, Elon Musk walked back his previous endorsement of an anti-Semitic post, clarifying that calls for “a Jewish genocide” were “unacceptable to any reasonable person.”
But he then resumed his long-running series of attacks on the anti-Semitism watchdog ADL.
Musk was accused Wednesday afternoon of promoting anti-Semitism after responding to a racist post with the comment, “You said the actual truth.”
Then two hours later he wrote: ‘decolonization’ necessarily implies a Jewish genocide. So it is unacceptable to any reasonable person.”
Musk, who has been strongly criticized by the Anti-Defamation League and the Israeli Foreign Ministry for his past comments, then attacked the ADL, accusing them of racism.
“And at the risk of repeating myself, I am deeply offended by the messaging of ADL and all other groups that de facto push anti-white racism or anti-Asian racism or racism of any kind,” he said.
‘I’m done with it. Stop now.’
Musk sparked the firestorm on Wednesday by responding to a man who posted a screed on X criticizing a campaign video from the Foundation to Combat Anti-Semitism.
The video shows a father talking to his son about the online hate the son has expressed and calling him out for his rhetoric.
The
“I’m not at all interested in saying even the slightest bit about the fact that the Western Jewish population is coming to the disturbing realization that those hordes of minorities who support the flooding of their land don’t particularly like them.
“You want the truth told to your face, there it is.”
Musk, who has 163 million followers, responded: “You said the actual truth.”