From Meta and Tesla to BlackRock, the U.S. business delegation joining President Donald Trump’s summit with Chinese leader Xi Jinping this week is largely made up of companies hoping to resolve key business challenges in the world’s second-largest economy.
More than a dozen CEOs and senior executives from major firms including Tesla, BlackRock, Illumina, Mastercard and Visa are set to accompany Trump during his visit from May 14 to 15, a White House official said on Monday.
The delegation marks a contrast from Trump’s 2017 trip, which was defined by pageantry and major trade announcements. This time, the smaller group is expected to focus on long-standing commercial priorities in China, according to two people familiar with the preparations who requested anonymity.
“Besides Boeing and Cargill being linked to purchase agreements, the others are mainly there to deliver demands on critical input supply,” said Reva Goujon, a geopolitical strategist at Rhodium Group.
“This could help the U.S. administration’s messaging that to even be able to discuss a board of investment, China needs to be a reliable investment partner and not weaponise supply.”
The companies involved are hoping the summit will create enough political goodwill to help unlock regulatory approvals, market access and future investment opportunities, the sources said.
Many of the firms are also facing operational challenges in China that go beyond conventional dealmaking, making the summit an important diplomatic opening.
U.S. gene-sequencing company Illumina said its CEO, Jacob Thaysen, was honoured to join the U.S. business delegation.
“This is an opportunity to strengthen relationships and shape the future of precision medicine,” the company said, without providing further details.
Companies Bring ‘Tangible Ask’ to Summit
One of the main conditions for companies joining the trip was having a “tangible ask” that could produce a concrete outcome or handshake agreement during or after the summit, one of the sources said.
Another source said U.S. firms viewed the meeting less as a platform for formal announcements and more as a political opportunity to accelerate regulatory discussions already taking place in China.
Meta, for example, is seeking to address an order issued last month by China’s powerful state planner to unwind its more than $2 billion acquisition of artificial intelligence startup Manus.
The move comes as Beijing increases scrutiny of U.S. investment in domestic startups working on frontier technologies.
China is also considering restrictions on exports of solar manufacturing equipment to the United States, a move that could affect plans by American companies such as Tesla to build new factories or expand existing facilities to increase local production.
Tesla has reportedly been seeking to buy $2.9 billion worth of solar panel manufacturing equipment from Chinese suppliers, including Suzhou Maxwell Technologies, which was seeking export approval from China’s commerce ministry.
Tesla is also pursuing Chinese regulatory approval to expand the use of its Full Self-Driving assistance system in the world’s largest auto market.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has previously acknowledged the difficulties caused by technology restrictions imposed by both U.S. and Chinese authorities, although he has expressed optimism about securing approval in China this year.
BlackRock CEO Larry Fink is also heading to Beijing as a consortium led by the U.S. asset manager faces scrutiny over a planned $23 billion acquisition of ports from Hong Kong conglomerate CK Hutchison, including two near the Panama Canal.
Beijing has criticised the deal as Washington continues efforts to reduce Chinese influence over the strategically important waterway.
Among the technology companies in the delegation, optical components maker Coherent is dealing with Beijing’s export controls on indium and related materials used in high-performance optical chips.
Illumina’s presence on the trip comes as the company works to rebuild its business operations after Beijing lifted an export ban imposed on the firm last year.
However, the company remains on China’s “unreliable entity” list, meaning Chinese firms must seek government approval before purchasing Illumina instruments.
The restrictions come amid rising U.S.-China tensions over biotechnology security and supply-chain dependence.
Financial Firms Seek Greater China Access
Payment giants Mastercard and Visa are hoping to use the summit to strengthen their positions in China’s tightly controlled payments market, according to the two sources.
One person familiar with the matter said Mastercard hoped the U.S. government would push for the company to secure a larger stake in its China joint venture.
In 2023, Mastercard became the first foreign payments network to receive approval to clear domestic yuan-denominated bank-card transactions in China through a joint venture with local partner NetsUnion.
Another source said Visa, which has yet to obtain a domestic bank-card clearing licence in China like Mastercard and American Express, hopes to enter the highly sought-after market with an unprecedented 100% ownership stake in a future joint venture licence.
Citigroup CEO Jane Fraser and Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon are also joining the trip as Wall Street firms continue efforts to deepen their access to China’s capital markets.
Citi is still waiting for approval to operate a wholly owned securities brokerage in China after exiting a previous joint venture.
The bank is also facing a dispute with Haiyue Energy Group, a fuel company based in eastern Zhejiang province, which sued Citibank over the freezing of a $27 million payment linked to U.S. sanctions.
China and the United States may also reach a farm agreement during the summit to increase Beijing’s purchases of grains and meat.
However, market watchers do not expect significant new soybean purchases beyond those already agreed under last October’s deal.
