Gary Zhou 
Tesla China seems to be ramping its communication efforts, taking a somewhat opposite approach compared to Tesla’s operations in the United States.
A photo of Tesla’s hiring campaign lists that Tesla China is beefing up its PR and legal affairs team. The list of positions includes slots on the foreign affairs team, human resources, and the legal affairs department.
The jobs available in the foreign affairs team include a Senior Manager of External Affairs (Central) in Beijing and a Senior Manager of External (Research Institute) in Bejing. The foreign affairs team is also looking for an External Affairs Manager in several locations, like Shanghai, Nanjing, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen.
As for the human resources team, Tesla China is looking for an Employee Experience Partner, an HR director, and an HR Specialist in Shanghai. It is also looking for a (Senior) Renjiu Resource Partner in Shanghai, Beijing, Nanjing, Suzhou, Guangzhou, and Shenzen.
Tesla China is looking for an engineering lawyer, after-sales lawyer, antitrust lawyer, and a data privacy protection lawyer for the legal affairs team, all located in Shanghai.
The positions for the legal affairs team and human resources are very telling. Much like Tesla in the US, Tesla China has faced many false accusations, reports, and rumors in the past. A few months ago, Tesla China had to handle a barrage of social media posts, many of which claimed alleged “brake failure” incidents in the company’s cars. Later, some of the same social media influencers admitted to reporting false brake failure incidents just to ride the trend.
The positions listed above show a different approach to the FUD (fear, uncertainty, and doubt) that Tesla has become familiar with over the years. Tesla China seems to be taking a more proactive and preventative approach to FUD by beefing up the teams that could control and deal with situations like false accusations.
Whereas, Tesla’s communications team in the US is practically nonexistent, making it difficult for the company to explain its side or share pertinent information to potential customers and investors.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has been adamant about not relying on ads to ease the FUD spreading about the company. Musk believes in citizen journalism which has led to the growth of many websites or blogs about Tesla, managed by people who believe in the company’s mission and seek to dispel FUD about it.
