Sources say business leaders are expected to travel to Washington, but the plans may be ‘more about optics’ than concrete results
3-MIN READ3-MINDewey Sim,Khushboo RazdanandWilliam ZhengPublished: 6:00am, 11 Sep 2026Updated: 6:05am, 11 Sep 2026Beijing is weighing plans to send a group of top tech, electric vehicle and aerospace executives to accompany Chinese President Xi Jinping to Washington later this month, as the two sides race to finalise details for the closely watched visit.The South China Morning Post first reported on August 28 that Chinese and US officials were negotiating whether business leaders would join Xi’s delegation to the US. However, details about who might be included have not been previously reported.According to sources, while specifics of the delegation are still being ironed out, China has approached the selection with the aim of modelling the American CEO delegation that followed US President Donald Trump to China earlier this year.This meant that the Chinese delegation was expected to comprise business leaders from the tech, finance, EV and aerospace sectors, they said.
One source familiar with the matter said China had yet to formally commit to bringing any business leaders to Washington with Xi. But both Beijing and Washington were treating every aspect of the visit as a matter of reciprocity, including the composition of the business delegation.
When Trump travelled to Beijing in May, more than a dozen top American CEOs joined him, including the heads of Tesla, Apple, Nvidia and Boeing.
