Chinese President Xi Jinping plans to bring a huge group of business leaders with him during his trip to Washington. Reuters first reported this news. The trip will take place September 24, when Xi will meet with President Donald Trump.
This move is unusual. Xi rarely travels abroad with company executives. Many Chinese business leaders fell out of favor with the government after Beijing began a major crackdown on the tech, education, and property industries in 2020.
A White House official said the administration was not aware of any Chinese CEO delegation, but the official did not explain what that meant. No one had publicly reported the business delegation before this story was published, and Reuters could not yet confirm which executives would join the trip.
One source said the move aims to show that China welcomes American investment and business ties. It could also give the White House a political win to highlight ahead of the upcoming midterm elections.
Chinese companies have faced growing pressure in the United States in recent years. The U.S. placed a 100% tariff on Chinese electric cars, banned certain foreign-made drones, routers, and robots, and forced TikTok to sell its U.S. business to new owners. US also added several major Chinese tech firms to lists that identify companies as national security risks.
The last time Xi brought a large group of business leaders to the US was back in 2015. That group included Alibaba founder Jack Ma and Tencent founder Pony Ma, along with leaders from major Chinese banks. During that same trip, China signed a huge deal to buy 300 Boeing airplanes worth 38 billion dollars, and Xi personally met with tech leaders like Apple’s Tim Cook, Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos.
Trump has taken a different approach on his trips to China, bringing large groups of American business leaders with him in 2017 and again in May. During the May trip, Trump brought 18 American executives, including Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and Tesla CEO Elon Musk.
Scott Kennedy, a China expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said Chinese officials seem ready to give their business leaders a bigger, more serious role this time. He compared this with the U.S. group that joined Trump in May, saying those executives acted more like quiet observers than active participants in the talks.
Experts say expectations for the summit itself are still fairly modest. Officials from both countries still disagree over which products should count as “non-sensitive” for trade, with around ten categories currently under discussion.
On the US side, top goals for the summit include reaching a trade deal and securing more licenses to import rare earth materials from China. Washington has also pushed China to fully follow through on a trade agreement the two countries reached last October in Busan(South Korea) which paused certain tariffs and export controls for one year.
Meanwhile, China wants the U.S. to reduce more tariffs. Officials from both governments plan to hold more talks in early September to discuss what the summit could actually achieve.
