OPINION:

Let’s be honest. Watching President Trump and Elon Musk turn their relationship into one impressively aggressive and large dumpster fire and scream at each other in the middle of the street was kind of entertaining. Unless you are a member of the Chinese Communist Party, in which case, the rapidly deteriorating back-and-forth was a nightmare.

The reality is, as it has been for some time, that the billionaire business owner is an important asset to the regime in Beijing. Tesla’s Chinese operations, which were responsible for more than 22% of Tesla’s revenue in 2023 (over $20 billion), ensure that China has access to the very latest technologies for electric vehicles and batteries. Investments by Chinese nationals in SpaceX, in his artificial intelligence company and in Neuralink ensures that China also has a front-row seat to the development of those technologies.

In short, Mr. Musk is, wittingly or otherwise, in a partnership with the genocidal regime in Beijing.

Having Mr. Musk in the immediate proximity of the president also probably gave that regime the opportunity to have a granular understanding of Mr. Trump’s sentiments in more or less real time. That’s the kind of access money can’t usually buy.

The relationship pays dividends in other ways for the regime in Beijing. In 2023, Mr. Musk suggested that Taiwan was “an integral part of China that is arbitrarily not part of China,” separated from the mainland because of U.S. involvement in its defense operations. He added that Taiwan is “more significant than Hawaii” to the U.S. Absolutely accurate, if the United States had nuclear weapons pointed at the Aloha State.

It’s bad enough that Mr. Musk’s former pal Vivek Ramaswamy stopped talking about himself long enough in 2023 to warn: “Tesla is increasingly beholden to China. … I have no reason to think Elon won’t jump like a circus monkey when Xi Jinping calls in the hour of need.”

The problem is not purely theoretical. Way back in December, Congress included provisions in the temporary spending bill that limited American investments in certain Chinese industries; prohibited or required notification of transactions involving China in sectors such as semiconductors, quantum technology and artificial intelligence; required reviews of Chinese real estate purchases near national security-sensitive sites; and mandated an assessment of the national security risks posed by Chinese-made products.

Then Mr. Musk got involved in the legislation, and those provisions magically disappeared.

Maybe you prefer foreign policy instead of legislative work. Can it be accidental that Mr. Musk’s first target in his pointless and fruitless vandalization of the federal government was the U.S. Agency for International Development? Say what you will about mismanaged programs, but if one wanted to destroy whatever goodwill exists for the United States in the developing world and provide a propaganda opening to the slaving, genocidal regime in Beijing, the elimination of USAID — and all $36 billion it spends (in a $6.7 trillion budget) — would be an excellent place to start.

So, for those of us who love the United States, the great news about the divorce of Messrs. Trump and Musk is that we can now get back to the urgent task of meeting the challenge of the Chinese Communist Party. Let’s get on with selling TikTok. Let’s be clear that electric vehicle mandates play right into Beijing’s hands because China has a hammerlock on the critical minerals necessary to make the batteries.

Let’s finally outlaw American investment in the communist and slaving regime. Let’s stop the Chinese Communist Party from buying American assets. Let’s support Mr. Trump’s welcome efforts to decouple our economy from China’s. Most important, let’s commit to winning the artificial intelligence race.

Finally, let’s be clear who our friends and allies are in this contest and who they aren’t. I’ll start: Mr. Musk is neither a friend nor an ally of the United States.

• Michael McKenna is a contributing editor at The Washington Times.