Chinese ‘Elon Musk’ stuns the internet, world’s richest man responds

The world’s richest man is now questioning his ancestry after pictures emerged of a man who looked exactly like him from China.

A Chinese man has become an overnight internet sensation after viewers noticed his uncanny resemblance to the world’s richest person, US tech entrepreneur Elon Musk.

The video of the unnamed man from Suzhou, in the eastern China province of Jiangsu, was first posted to Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok.

He stood next to a luxurious car and smiled at the camera where his similarity to Mr Musk was instantly commented upon by viewers.

However, as soon as he spoke, it was obvious he was “downright Chinese” as he had a very obvious “local accent” according to spectators.

Since then, the video has been shared more than 10,000 times on the platform as well as being reposted on Weibo, Facebook and Twitter.

Social media users labelled the man Musk’s “long-lost twin brother” and a “doppelganger”.

Some even gave him a Chinese name that sounded similar to his US counterpart – ‘Yi Long Musk’.

And in a hilarious twist to the saga, Elon Musk himself weighed in.

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Maybe I’m partly Chinese!

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 20, 2021

Mr Musk, who is very active on Twitter, announced that he would be paying $US11 billion ($A15 billion) in taxes this year – the largest tax ever owed by an individual.

In reply, a Chinese user shared an image which compared Musk to his Chinese twin.

Instantly recognising the similarity himself, Mr Musk joked: “Maybe I’m partly Chinese!”

Mr Musk was born to a Canadian mother and South African father and is a US citizen.

Can you spot the difference.

Left: Musk’s ‘twin’. Right: Musk himself. Picture: Theo Wargo/Getty Images

Even the Global Times, the mouthpiece of the Chinese government, has become invested in the tale, writing a humorous article about Mr Musk’s lookalike.

The publication pointed out that the Asian version of Mr Musk could have used an AI face swap to mimic the key features of the billionaire.

But to prove himself to the nonbelievers, the Chinese man promised to do a live stream on Sunday to make it obvious he does indeed look like that.

Mr Musk has a net worth of $US245 billion ($A339 billion) according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

At his peak earlier this year, Mr Musk’s net worth was a whopping $US302 billion ($A418), the only person in the world so far to surpass the $US300 billion mark.