President Donald Trump invited over a dozen top American business leaders to join him in China for talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping from May 13 to May 15.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Apple CEO Tim Cook headline the group. Joining them are Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon, Blackstone Chairman and CEO Stephen Schwarzman, BlackRock Chairman and CEO Larry Fink, Citigroup CEO Jane Fraser, Meta Platforms executive Dina Powell McCormick, and Boeing President and CEO Kelly Ortberg, who are also expected to take part.
The goal is clear: to pursue deals that benefit American companies and workers and leverage them abroad.
Although the trip is officially about economics, Just the News reports that the Iran war could play a large role in the summit.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Xi and Trump are expected to discuss the war and urged China to help the U.S. and its allies in the "international operation" to open the Strait of Hormuz, Reuters reported.
Beijing has worked quietly to try to convince Iran to hold peace talks, while at the same time maintaining good relations with Iran, which sends 80% of its oil to China. As the war drags on, China's energy security is becoming increasingly strained. Beijing refiners have cut lucrative exports of gasoline and jet fuel to ensure enough for China's domestic uses.
Trump and Xi are also expected to discuss oil sanctions on Iran. In April, the U.S. Treasury imposed sanctions on Chinese refiners for buying Iranian oil, and it has warned others.
Trump's critics can hate the optics, but the optics are part of the point; he's not sending relatives into quiet side rooms; he's bringing major executives into public view and making the mission clear before the trip begins.
Deals, purchases, trade, manufacturing, and jobs. American economic power is openly being used, not whispered through family connections and buried later under the language only lawyers understand.
The contrast with the Biden years almost writes itself. Hunter Biden joined his father, then-Vice President Joe Biden, on an official trip to China in 2013.
During that trip, Hunter met with Chinese business figure Jonathan Li, who later became tied to BHR Partners; BHR received Chinese approval shortly afterward, and Hunter later served on its board.
Joe insisted he stayed separate from his son's business activities, but too many names, meetings, photos, and payments kept surfacing.
These images are notable because they further undercut Joe Biden’s already-diminished unequivocal assertions that he never had any business-related contact with his son. In fact, the House Republicans’ impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden uncovered at least two dozen interactions between him and his son’s business partners from China and other countries.
However, Hunter Biden and others involved have testified that — despite occasional phone calls, meet-and-greets and dinners with Joe Biden — business was never substantively discussed. Hunter Biden’s former main US business partner later testified that Hunter was selling the “illusion” of access to his father, but “nothing of material was discussed” during these interactions.
Hunter Biden’s attorney Abbe Lowell criticized the Trump-aligned groups that fought to obtain and release the images, saying in a statement, “There is simply nothing new here.”
“The photos match perfectly to Hunter’s congressional testimony description of who he saw at this public event during a 2013 trip to China,” Lowell said, referring to Hunter Biden’s closed-door deposition in February, during which he was grilled by Republicans for six hours.
“These attacks trying to twist these images into something they are not is just more of the same old tired, misinformation spin from some Republicans who can’t let go of their ridiculous conspiracy theories and baseless accusations,” Lowell said in the statement.
Hunter's later dealings with CEFC China Energy only deepened the smell around the arrangement. CEFC was a major Chinese energy company with political connections, and Hunter's business world kept drifting toward powerful foreign interests while his father held one of the most important jobs in American government.
Americans didn't need a doctorate in ethics to understand why the arrangement looked and smelled rotten.
They only needed a set of eyeballs.
Trump's China trip is different because the mission, cast, and intended beneficiaries are public. Musk wants markets; Cook wants supply-chain stability. Ortberg wants aircraft deals; Fraser, Fink, Solomon, and Schwarzman understand capital, risk, and access.
Nobody has to pretend that the trip involves a weather report and a cultural exchange. Trump is using American business power as diplomacy, which serious countries do when they remember how to compete.
China doesn't hand out advantages because visiting Americans smile for the cameras. Xi runs a hard, disciplined, self-interested regime, and every handshake should be treated as part of the negotiation.
Still, Trump is putting the dealmaking table where everybody can see it, which beats the old Biden method of pretending the table doesn't exist while everybody hears chairs scraping across the floor.
Trump could return with signed purchase agreements, expanded exports, and an Apple supply-chain deal big enough to make Cupertino hum like every iPhone factory on launch week.
But, playing its part, you know, TDS takes over while somebody complains about the seating chart.
The better question is simple: would Americans rather have a president who openly brings CEOs to China to fight for U.S. interests or a vice president's son who quietly tags along and somehow keeps finding business opportunities?
Even Washington should be able to solve that riddle without calling a consultant.
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