1/ Thoughts re $TSLA Shanghai factory: Tesla has no way to pay for it. Does anyone believe this can be done without cutting in the Communist party plus some Chinese financial backing? So, who is paying? What are the terms of the deal? What's left over for Tesla's bottom line?
2/ Who has $TSLA contracted for the construction work? Why are cranes on site when massive amounts of reinforced concrete footings & foundations would first need to be poured?
3/ Will the Communist Government allow Panasonic to supply $TSLA the battery cells for Chinese cars? No, it will not. So, who will be supplying them? Has Panasonic licensed any protected aspects of the cell design, or will China simply rip off the intellectual property as usual?
4/ Meanwhile, is $TSLA free to sell American-made Model 3s in China free of tariff? There's no indication of that. So, how many Model 3 sales in China does Tesla project for 2019? Resellers there are already stuffed to the gills with S & X.
5/ It's convenient to have $TSLA's Musk & his all-male Chinese assemblage of politicians and, and - well, exactly who were those other guys and what is their role? Anyway, they broke ground by resting their hands on illuminated pylons because...
6/ ...it would have been as embarrassing as hell to try to sink spades into that muck. $TSLA has been pumping this site for months, but shockingly little work has been done on it so far, especially considering Musk promises production this year. 
7/ These things - agreements with the government, with financiers, with construction companies, and production plans - are all material. Where is the $TSLA 8-k? Missing in action.
8/ Also, Where are the SEC-mandated twitter sitters who have vetted this $TSLA promise of Model 3 production this year? Did Kathleen Wilson-Thompson and Larry Ellison review Musk's tweet promising construction & production this year? Did Dane Butswinkas advise them?
9/ I suspect the answer is no. Just as Musk has spit in the face of the SEC with his "Shortseller Enrichment Commission" tweet, his snarling during the 60 Minutes Interview, and his appointment of BFF Ellison, this China pump is more defiance.
10/ So, for the months to come, expect more of this $TSLA stock pumping, about China, about the Model Y, and who knows what else. For two reasons...
11/ First, why not? The twitter sitters include an HR specialist who probably struggles to understand $TSLA's convoluted financial statements and Elon's BFF who has famously said, "We can't be successful if we don't lie to customers."
12/ Second, the SEC appears unwilling to take any action. Maybe there's something cooking. Perhaps Musk & $TSLA are simply taking advantage of the government shutdown.
13/ But unless the SEC at some point sits up, takes notice, and takes action, it's a terrible signal to financial markets. If you're rich enough, famous enough, and outrageous enough, you can get away with as much fraud as you wish to.
14/ Meanwhile, the pump elevates the share price. And Shanghai distracts from the actual business realities $TSLA faces in Q1: inventory clotting lots all over the US, US demand a shadow of its pre-cliff Q4 self, and no word on EU homologation.
15/ Q1 will be a financial catastrophe. $TSLA will lose as much in Q1 as it made in Q3 and Q4 combined. Either that, or it will pad its Balance Sheet with overvalued inventory it can't sell. While the bills stack up.
16/ When $TSLA finally starts delivering in the EU, the reality will sink home: demand for the overpriced, unreliable Model 3 there is minuscule. Imagine if Tesla today were required to release the number of orders it has, after having invited all comers. How many?
17/ Estimates of order culled from the $TSLA Model 3 reservation holders range from 10k to 20k. In all of Europe. That's it, folks. Double that in a moment of exuberance and you get 40k when adding in the orders from non-reservation holders.
18/ Many of those $TSLA Model 3 sales will come at the expense of the Model S. Tesla is about to be eaten alive in Europe by the competition. In fact, it's already happening in Norway. And its second largest European market, the Netherlands, just fell off its own subsidy cliff.
19/ So, yeah, let's talk the Model Y and Shanghai, and let's pump the stock, because the $TSLA business realities are grimmer and grimmer each day. And, heck, the rules no longer apply to us. We can make airy promises & set impossible goals, & never have to file an 8-k. <fin>
20/ Let me add a h/t to @LarrySabin1, who just made the same point about the concrete that is made earlier in this thread.
