Don't you think that we give up a bit of our advantage in negotiations when we've announced that we're really only interested in deals with North American/European players? There's not enough competitors in the US for Tesla to worry about us going elsewhere. Europe maybe. But they know we're chasing a big name.
Maybe we were only vocal about this after we received significant interest from North America and Europe and we were happy with early negotiations and therefore didn't need to talk to Chinese players. But then that takes me back to my point - then the NA and European co's know they're in the box seat and it hands them some of the power when at the table.
