By Laurie Chen, Trevor Hunnicutt and Heejin Kim
Publication Date: 2026-05-13 12:38:00
May 13, 2026, 8:38 a.m. ET
Beijing/Seoul ― President Donald Trump landed in Beijing accompanied by an entourage that included Nvidia’s Jensen Huang and Elon Musk on Wednesday after pledging to urge China’s Xi Jinping to “open up” to U.S. business at the start of their two-day summit.
Trump embarks on the first visit by a U.S. president to China in nearly a decade eager to snag some deals, maintain a fragile trade truce with the world’s second economy, and prop up public approval ratings bruised by his war with Iran.
The CEOs accompanying Trump are drawn mainly from companies seeking to resolve business issues with China, such as Nvidia, which has struggled to get regulatory permission to sell its powerful H200 artificial intelligence chips there.
Trump asked Huang at the last minute to join the trip, said a source familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity, and he was spotted boarding Air Force One during a refuelling stop in Alaska en route to Beijing.
“I will be asking President Xi, a Leader of extraordinary distinction, to ‘open up’ China so that these brilliant people can work their magic,” he said in post on Truth Social, referring to the CEO delegation.
“I will make that my very first request.”
Asked about Trump’s post, Guo Jiakun, a spokesperson for China’s foreign ministry, said Beijing stands ready to “expand cooperation, manage differences and inject more stability and certainty into the turbulent world”.
As Trump prepared for the pomp-filled…
