Elon Musk's China Visit

Tech billionaire and Tesla CEO Elon Musk was in China for talks, making his second trip in less than a year to the world's biggest market for electric vehicles.

Musk -- one of the world's richest people -- held a meeting with a top trade official.

Musk has extensive business interests in China and his most recent visit was in June last year.

Tesla did not respond to requests for confirmation of Musk's visit, or share his itinerary for the trip.

At the invitation of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, Tesla CEO Elon Musk arrived in Beijing.

Chinese Premier Li Qiang told Tesla CEO Elon Musk that China would "always" be open to foreign firms, state media reported, as the two met during the billionaire's second trip to China in the space of a year.

"China's very large-scale market will always be open to foreign-funded firms," Li told Musk, promising China would "continue working hard to expand market access".

State media said Musk met with Ren Hongbin, the head of the trade council, "to discuss next steps in cooperation and other topics".

The mercurial magnate is a controversial figure in the West, but in China, Tesla's electric vehicles have become a staple of middle-class urban life.

Having once derided Chinese EVs, Musk described them this year as being "the most competitive car companies in the world".

"It's good to see electric vehicles making progress in China," he was quoted as saying by a state-backed media outlet.

"All cars will be electric in the future."

However, Musk's own company has run into trouble in the world's second-largest economy: in January, Tesla recalled more than 1.6 million electric vehicles in China to fix their steering software.

His arrival in China coincides with a cut-throat price war between firms desperate to get ahead in the fiercely competitive EV market.

His visit also comes as Beijing hosts a massive auto show, which held press events open to the public over the weekend.