President Trump is heading to Beijing this week to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping, and he is bringing several Big Tech chief executives with him, including Tesla chief executive Elon Musk and Apple chief executive Tim Cook. The unusual lineup has raised expectations that the talks could produce more than a standard diplomatic reset.
Brendan Ahern, who has been tracking the trip, said he believes the executives are being taken along so the White House can announce “a bit of a broader trade deal.” He said that deal could reach into soybeans and Boeing airplanes, and that Chinese companies could work with U.S. counterparts to bring manufacturing jobs back to the United States.
The timing matters because Trump is making the 14-hour trip as Beijing and Washington keep testing one another’s leverage. Ahern said China has rare earths that the U.S. military depends on very heavily, while tariffs continue to hit U.S. consumers. That makes the Beijing meeting a negotiation about industrial policy as much as it is about politics.
China’s own technology push is part of the backdrop. Ahern said China’s 15 five-year plan makes technology self-reliance a top priority, and he argued that Chinese companies are already global leaders in electric vehicles and hybrid vehicles, as well as in clean technology, battery storage, solar, wind and nuclear. He added that Chinese firms are also benefiting from what is happening in the Middle East.
That is why the trip has also put attention on Jensen Huang, even though he is not among the named travelers in the facts provided. The broader message is that the White House is entering a China conversation where technology, supply chains and advanced manufacturing are all tied together, and where the companies in the room matter as much as the officials at the table.
Ahern pointed to Unitry as one example of how fast China’s industrial base is moving. He said the company is going public in China later on this year and is making more than 300 humanoid robots on a daily basis. “They’re making more than 300 humanoid robots on a daily basis,” he said, adding that the pace shows Chinese companies are “actually at a really high level.”
The open question is whether the Beijing talks produce a narrow trade announcement or a larger package that touches goods, manufacturing and technology. If Trump and Xi do unveil something, it would signal that both sides still see room for bargaining, even in a relationship defined by tariffs, competition and mutual dependence.
