US President Donald Trump arrived in China’s capital Beijing on Wednesday evening.
At the invitation of Chinese President Xi Jinping, Trump is paying a state visit to China from May 13 to 15.
Xi and Trump will have an in-depth exchange of views on major issues concerning China-US relations and world peace and development.
The two leaders last met in October 2025 in Busan, the Republic of Korea. It is the first visit to China by a US president in nine years.
Chinese Vice President Han Zheng welcomed Trump upon his arrival.
More than a dozen US business leaders accompany Trump to China
The White House confirmed that more than a dozen US business leaders would accompany US President Donald Trump on his visit to China from May 13 to 15.
The delegation includes executives from the technology, finance, aviation and agriculture sectors. The technology sector lineup is particularly striking. Technology leaders on the trip include Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, Apple CEO Tim Cook, Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon, Micron CEO Sanjay Mehrotra, Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins and Coherent CEO Jim Anderson.
Reuters, AP and CBS reported that the White House initially released the delegation list on May 11. On May 13, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang was added to the trip at the last minute after boarding Air Force One during a stop in Alaska. Trump later confirmed Huang’s participation in a Truth Social post.
The visit is notable because it brings together an unusually large group of American technology executives in Beijing as part of a presidential delegation, highlighting the growing importance of technology and AI issues between China and US.
The presence of these tech giants is significant for several reasons.
Tesla’s Shanghai Gigafactory remains the heart of the company’s global production capacity. Data shows that in the first quarter of 2026, the Shanghai facility delivered 213,000 vehicles, a 23.5% increase year on year, accounting for nearly 60% of Tesla’s total global deliveries. During his previous visits to China, Musk has publicly described himself as a “big fan of China.”
For Apple, according to its fiscal year 2026 second-quarter report, Greater China revenue reached $20.497 billion, a sharp 28% increase year on year, representing 18.4% of the company’s total revenue.
Cook has previously emphasized that without its Chinese partners and supply chain, Apple could not have achieved the success it enjoys today.
For Qualcomm, China remains a key market for Qualcomm’s chip sales and patent licensing business, while the company is also seeking to expand its presence in automotive semiconductors and Artificial Intelligence of Things (AIoT).
Micron Technology, facing a complex compliance environment due to ongoing US semiconductor export controls, is seeking ways to resume and expand shipments to China in compliance with regulatory requirements, particularly to support data center and AI computing storage infrastructure.
Columbia University researcher Julian Gewirtz, in an earlier analysis, noted that a US president leading a large group of top-tier CEOs to China would be a highly notable event in itself, given that the core US logic over the past decade has been economic competition.
He added that President Trump sees things differently – his focus is on selling more American products to China.
Whether this unprecedented visit will lead to breakthroughs on key issues such as chip export controls and market access will be closely watched around the world.
CGTN Poll: A more responsible China-US relationship is needed by the world
As changes in the world not seen in a century accelerate, relations between major powers have long transcended the scope of bilateral ties and have become a key force shaping the international landscape and global order. A global survey jointly released by CGTN and Renmin University of China, conducted through the Institute of International Communication Studies in the New Era and covering 12,302 respondents from 39 countries, shows that 75% of global respondents believe that healthy and stable China-US relations are crucial to the international community.
Nine years after his previous trip to China, US President Donald Trump is scheduled to pay a state visit to China, with issues such as trade, technology and global governance continuing to draw widespread attention. In the survey, 78.3% of respondents from developing countries believed that China-US relations are vital to world peace, stability and prosperity, and carry major significance for global trade, geopolitics and even the international order. Meanwhile, 76.7% of American respondents shared this view.
As a “ballast stone” of China-US relations, economic and trade cooperation is of great significance not only to the two countries, but also to global economic stability and recovery. Against the backdrop of mounting downward pressure on the world economy, stronger China-US economic and trade cooperation serves the common interests and broad expectations of the international community. The survey shows that 74.6% of respondents worldwide believe that the essence of China-US trade is mutual benefit and win-win cooperation. Among respondents from developing countries, the level of agreement reached 78.2%, while 75.3% of American respondents also shared this view, both higher than the global average.
Respondents generally believe that as long as both sides move toward each other with an attitude of mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation, they can find ways to address each other’s concerns. Among them, 72.8% of American respondents believe that China and the United States can achieve mutual benefit and win-win outcomes, and that economic and trade frictions are not inherently irreconcilable. In addition, 77.9% of global respondents said that economic and trade relations should serve as a stabilizer in China-US relations rather than a source of conflict. Agreement levels among respondents from developing countries and the United States reached 81.5% and 76.4%, respectively.
Facts have repeatedly demonstrated that “mutual achievement and shared prosperity” between China and the United States is a tangible and visible reality. As long as both sides move toward each other with an approach grounded in equality, respect and reciprocity, they can find ways to address each other’s concerns. In the survey, 78.6% of respondents called on the United States to return to a rational and pragmatic strategic perception and to strengthen dialogue on the basis of mutual respect in order to reduce misunderstandings. Among respondents from developing countries, the level of agreement reached 81.8%.
The survey was conducted through an online panel sampling method. All respondents were members of the general public aged 18 and above, and the sample was designed to be broadly representative of each country’s census-based age and gender distribution.
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