President Donald Trump will travel to China this week to meet with Xi Jinping from May 13-15, the first state visit by a U.S. president in nearly a decade, according to Bloomberg. Trump will bring several business leaders from the worlds of finance and technology for the trip, including people with major interests in the country, like Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Tim Cook, who will soon leave his role as CEO of Apple to work on government relations.
Musk, the world’s richest person at $822 billion, continued to be closely involved in White House affairs even after a falling out with President Trump last year. Trump brought Musk back into the fold and engaged with other world leaders, including a phone call in March with Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, according to the New York Times. The call reportedly centered on the war in Iran and, as the Times notes, it is highly unusual for a private citizen to participate in such a call.
Musk’s interests in China include his massive Tesla factory in Shanghai, which was first built in 2019 and expanded in 2025. Tim Cook’s interest in China is linked to Apple’s presence in the country. Despite efforts to diversify some of its manufacturing to countries like Vietnam, the tech giant still produces the majority of its hardware in China.
Meta will also have a presence in China, although it is unclear whether Mark Zuckerberg will be there. According to Bloomberg, Meta’s Dina Powell McCormick, who previously served as deputy national security adviser for strategy under President Trump, will be in attendance.
The list of known people traveling to China with Trump, according to Bloomberg:
- Kelly Ortberg (Boeing)
- Dina Powell McCormick (meta)
- Chuck Robbins (Cisco)
- Sanjay Mehrotra (Micron)
- Cristiano Amon (Qualcomm)
- David Salomon (Goldman Sachs)
- Stephen Schwarzman (Black Stone)
- Larry Fink (BlackRock)
- Jane Fraser (Citigroup)
- Larry Culp (General Electric)
- Brian Sikes (Cargill)
- Ryan McInerney (Visa)
- Michael Miebach (Mastercard)
- Jacob Thaysen (Illumina)
- Jim Anderson (consistent)
So far, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang is not on the guest list, which is notable given the company’s efforts to sell advanced AI chips to China. President Trump’s meeting with Xi will be important for American business, but the elephant in the room will be America’s war against Iran.
The United States imposed new sanctions on several Chinese companies last week, alleging they provided “satellite imagery to enable Iran to launch military strikes against U.S. forces in the Middle East” and aided Iran’s ballistic missile and drone program. China denies these allegations.
“We have always required Chinese companies to conduct business in accordance with laws and regulations, and we will firmly protect the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese companies,” government spokesperson Guo Jiakun said at a press briefing on Monday, according to Reuters.
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