Top US executives, including Tesla's Elon Musk and Apple's Tim Cook, will accompany US President Donald Trump on his visit to China this week, a White House official has said.
According to a list shared by a White House official on Monday, speaking on condition of anonymity, Musk and Cook will be accompanied by 15 other chief executive officers.
They include the chiefs of Boeing, GE Aerospace, Citi, Goldman Sachs, Mastercard and Visa.
Among tech companies, top executives from Cisco, Meta, Micron and Qualcomm will be on the trip, the official said.
Musk, the richest person in the world, heavily backed Trump on the campaign trail for his second term as US president, contributing more than $280 million.
The two had a public falling out in July last year, but appear to have since reconciled, with Musk reappearing in White House circles.
China-US talks agenda
Beijing has said it is ready to work with the United States in pursuit of "more stability" and confirmed that Trump will visit, the first US president to do so since 2017. His trip runs from Wednesday to Friday.
Washington and Beijing have been at loggerheads over key issues ranging from trade tariffs to the US-Israeli war on Iran to Taiwan, which China says is part of its territory.
The ongoing disruption in the Strait of Hormuz is also expected to feature prominently in discussions between the two leaders.
Before the war, the strategic waterway handled about 25 percent of global oil trade, 20 percent of liquefied natural gas shipments and 30 percent of global fertiliser trade.
China has blamed the US and Israel for regional instability and has reportedly instructed domestic refineries not to comply with US sanctions targeting Iranian oil exports.
While in Beijing, Trump will hold talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping, with the countries' myriad trade and economic issues on the table.
Trump and Xi agreed in October to a one-year truce in a blistering trade war that saw tariffs on many goods exceed 100 percent.
The US president has been pressuring companies to build manufacturing facilities in the United States, a bid to both reduce imports and increase domestic economic activity.
Many top tech companies' supply chains, however, heavily involve China, making them particularly exposed to bilateral trade tensions.
The United States has also sought to block China from accessing the highest-end artificial intelligence chips from US companies.
Breakthroughs
Jonathan A. Czin, a former CIA analyst and researcher at the Brookings Institution, said the meeting is unlikely to produce major breakthroughs and will instead focus on preserving temporary trade arrangements.
Speaking to reporters, including Anadolu, Czin said the US delegation is expected to seek Chinese commitments to increase purchases of American soybeans and Boeing passenger aircraft amid continuing export restrictions on advanced semiconductor technology.
Daniel Fu, a research fellow at Harvard Business School, said China’s strategic petroleum reserves and dependence on domestically produced coal reduce the immediate risks posed by maritime disruptions.
Fu said Beijing’s control over state-owned energy companies allows rapid rerouting of supply networks during periods of instability.
