Will Xi-Trump Summit Happen? Reports Say Xi Jinping Rarely Brings Business Leaders to US for Talks

Chinese President Xi Jinping is preparing to visit Washington this month, accompanied by a large delegation of corporate executives. According to sources, this arrangement is unusual given the United States' deep skepticism toward Chinese investment and Beijing's still-tense relationship with private enterprises. It may be intended to signal China's support for investment and commercial exchanges to the US side.

Reuters exclusively reported on Friday (4th) that Xi Jinping is scheduled to hold a summit with US President Trump on September 24. The plan for a business delegation to accompany him had not been previously disclosed, and it remains unclear which Chinese corporate executives will participate.

A source familiar with the discussions said China hopes to demonstrate its willingness to promote US-China investment and business relations, while also providing the White House with some economic achievements it can publicly announce ahead of the US midterm elections.

Rare Visit with Large Business Delegation—Last Time Was in 2015

Xi Jinping rarely travels abroad with senior corporate leaders, especially after Beijing began regulatory crackdowns on sectors such as technology, education, and real estate starting in 2020, during which many private entrepreneurs temporarily fell out of official favor.

His last large-scale business delegation visit to the US was in 2015, including Alibaba (09988-HK)(BABA-US) founder Jack Ma, Tencent (00700-HK) founder Pony Ma, and senior executives from Bank of China and state-owned enterprises.

During that visit, China signed an agreement to purchase 300 Boeing (BA-US) aircraft worth $38 billion; Xi also met with US tech leaders including Apple (AAPL-US) CEO Tim Cook, Meta (META-US) CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and Amazon (AMZN-US) founder Jeff Bezos.

In contrast, Trump frequently brought large US business delegations during his visits to China, including in 2017 and May of this year. The 18 US corporate executives who accompanied him in May included NVIDIA (NVDA-US) CEO Jensen Huang and Tesla (TSLA-US) CEO Elon Musk.

Scott Kennedy, China business expert at the Washington-based think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), said China now appears to be more deliberately including corporate leaders in the delegation, whose presence could be highly valuable. He also suggested that the US delegation in May was hastily assembled, with executives appearing more as background figures than key participants.

Limited Expectations for Summit Breakthroughs—Focus on Trade Mechanism and Rare Earth Exports

Despite China’s large business delegation, sources remain cautious about the summit’s outcomes. The US and China announced in May the establishment of a formal mechanism to manage bilateral trade and investment relations. However, due to ongoing challenges in the US investment environment toward China, the investment committee is unlikely to announce major outcomes during the summit.

There are still disagreements between the two sides over which 'non-sensitive' products can be included in the trade council, with about 10 categories currently under discussion. The final scope may be adjusted before the summit. One of the US’s main goals for this summit is to reach an agreement on the trade council and secure more export licenses for rare earths to US companies.

US officials said the Trump administration continues to demand that China fulfill the agreement reached in Busan last October. That agreement established a one-year trade truce, suspending some export controls and tariff measures. Beijing, in turn, demands further tariff reductions from the US. China’s Ministry of Commerce revealed in July that both sides are studying mutual tariff reductions on $30 billion worth of goods.

After the US Supreme Court overturned tariffs on China imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act in February, Washington introduced a 10% global import tariff. US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said Thursday that the two countries will release some information during the summit regarding agriculture and non-tariff barriers, though he did not provide details.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Greer, and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng are expected to meet in early September to discuss possible outcomes of the summit, though the exact time and location have not yet been determined.