China is the largest EV market in the world. And China already manufactures a lot of electric cars on their own.
As far as theft goes, I don’t know. But there are other things that set Tesla apart besides IP. And China can already tear a Tesla apart and steal a lot of ideas.
Perhaps Musk sees it as the positives outweighing the negatives.
Its not the cars themselves that are the most valuable IP. Rather its the manufacturing process that Musk is inventing from scratch.
The Chinese will get all of it. All of it.