Xi Jinping Unlikely To Bring CEOs To Summit Where Donald Trump Seeks Deals

Trump is preparing to host Xi in Washington, with talks set for Thursday and a lavish state dinner.

23 Sep 2026, 05:47 · NDTV

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President Trump to host Chinese President Xi Jinping in Washington summit this week
Xi Jinping unlikely to bring Chinese CEOs to US summit, per senior US official
Many top US tech and finance executives expected at state dinner with Trump and Xi

Why did Xi decide against bringing a business delegation this time?

The highly anticipated summit between President Donald Trump and China's Xi Jinping will bring together a robust gathering of US corporate leaders, but there will not be a comparable delegation of Chinese executives, raising questions about the prospects for the world's two largest economies to strike new business deals this week.

The Chinese president is not expected to bring any chief executive officers to the US as part of a business delegation, according to a senior US administration official, who sought anonymity to discuss details that are not yet public.

Trump is preparing to host Xi in Washington, with talks set for Thursday and a lavish state dinner, at which many prominent technology executives are expected to attend. Trump told reporters last week that he expected to notch "a lot of different deals" during the summit.

On the US side, tech executives expected to attend the dinner include Meta Platforms Inc.'s Mark Zuckerberg, Nvidia Corp.'s Jensen Huang, OpenAI's Sam Altman, Microsoft Corp.'s Satya Nadella, Amazon.com Inc.'s Jeff Bezos, Apple Inc.'s Tim Cook, Tesla Inc.'s Elon Musk, Alphabet Inc.'s Sundar Pichai and Michael Dell of Dell Technologies Inc. They are set to be joined by Jane Fraser of Citigroup Inc. and Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan Chase & Co. Mastercard Inc. CEO Michael Miebach is also expected to attend.

Others participating in the summit include Trump officials on the forefront of his economic and trade agenda, including Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Energy Secretary Chris Wright and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, among others, according to a person familiar with the matter.

While the plans and attendees are subject to change, the lopsided list of executives on the American side reflects a potential difference in expectations between the two countries. Trump has repeatedly expressed his anticipation for the summit, calling the Xi visit a "great honor" and highlighting his rapport with the Chinese leader.

The meeting comes at a politically difficult time for Trump, whose party faces midterm elections in November that could mean the loss of one or both houses of Congress and hinder the president's agenda over the next two years. Xi is approaching an expected fourth term in office amid a slowing economy.

The Wall Street Journal first reported that Xi would be unlikely to bring a group of executives with him to Washington.

During a state visit to the US in 2015, Xi brought a sizeable business contingent, including Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.'s Jack Ma, Tencent Holdings Ltd.'s Pony Ma and executives from Chinese state-owned companies.

In the runup to the summit, tensions have grown between Washington and Beijing over artificial intelligence, critical mineral exports and Taiwan, among other issues. Earlier this week, Greer indicated to Bloomberg Television that the US and China were still divided on the terms of a trade truce extension.

Part of the consideration for the delegation's size could be space-related. Trump, who has for months complained about the limited space in the White House to host large events, has defended plans to construct a massive ballroom on the grounds by saying it was needed to host gatherings such as the state dinner with Xi.

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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