The president Donald Trump declared on Thursday that the meeting between around 30 of the leading business executives in the United States and Chinese president Xi Jinping was a success, during his state visit to Beijing, the first since November 2017.
"I am in China. We had the best CEOs from around the world. There were about 30 of them, and they were presenting businesses in China to President Xi. I think they were successful!" Trump stated in remarks released this Thursday.
The business delegation that accompanied the president includes some of the most influential names in the U.S. corporate world: Elon Musk (Tesla), Tim Cook (Apple), Jensen Huang (Nvidia), Larry Fink (BlackRock), Stephen Schwarzman (Blackstone), Kelly Ortberg (Boeing), Jane Fraser (Citigroup), and David Solomon (Goldman Sachs), among others.
The combined value of the represented companies is estimated at 16.47 trillion dollars, an amount equivalent to approximately 90% of China’s Gross Domestic Product in 2025, making this delegation the largest concentration of private capital ever brought to a state visit.
Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, was not on the initial guest list. Trump personally called him last Tuesday, and Air Force One made a stop in Anchorage, Alaska, to pick him up. Huang is seeking approval in China for the sale of his H200 chips, in a market estimated at $50 billion.
Xi Jinping responded to the executives' presentation with an opening message: "China's door will only open wider for American businesses," noting that American companies are deeply integrated into the Chinese economy and that this relationship benefits both sides.
Trump, for his part, expressed optimism about the bilateral future. "The relationship between China and the U.S. will be better than ever," he stated after the approximately two-hour bilateral meeting held in the Great Hall of the People.
The visit comes after months of intense tariff warfare: Washington had imposed tariffs of 145% on Chinese products, while Beijing responded with tariffs of 125% on American goods.
This Thursday's program included a welcoming ceremony with military honors, a bilateral meeting, a visit to the Temple of Heaven—where Trump became the second U.S. president to visit the historic site, following Gerald Ford in 1975—and a state banquet hosted by Xi Jinping at the Great Hall of the People.
Before landing in Beijing, Trump had outlined the main focus of the visit from Air Force One: "We are going to talk with President Xi about many things. I would say, above all, about trade."
The Trump-Xi summit in Beijing also addresses security issues such as artificial intelligence, Taiwan, and the conflict with Iran. Concrete results are expected to be announced by Friday, ahead of the president's return to the United States.
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