Elon Musk meets with China's foreign minister about Tesla expansion

May 30 (UPI) -- Tesla founder Elon Musk met with Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang on Tuesday as he looks to tap into the country's potentially huge electric vehicle market.

Qin, China's former ambassador to the United States, said China's population and "common prosperity" would create "unprecedented growth potential and market demand."

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said Musk's meeting was meant to create a "deeper understanding" of "mutually beneficial cooperation" between Tesla and China.

"China is firmly committed to advancing high-level opening up and fostering a market-oriented, law-based and internationalized business environment," Mao said on Tuesday. "We welcome foreign companies to invest and do business in China, explore the Chinese market and share in development opportunities."

Musk and Qin meeting comes at a time of frazzled relations between the United States and China, the world's two largest economies. Qin told Musk it was important for the two countries to have a "healthy, stable and constructive" relationship.

He described the effort put into the China-U.S. relationship was like driving a car, where the driver must keep steering the wheels in the right direction, braking and throttling at the appropriate times to maintain safe operation.

Qin promised Musk that China would provide a "market-oriented, law-based and international business environment" for Tesla to support the new electric vehicle industry.

Musk, in turn, called the Chinese population diligent and intelligent and that the country's "development achievements are well-deserved."