President Donald Trump is expected to arrive in Beijing on Wednesday for a two-day meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping — and he’s not coming alone. Elon Musk, Apple CEO Tim Cook, Nvidia’s Jensen Huang, and other prominent US executives are expected to join the presidential delegation, signaling that trade and technology will sit at the heart of the discussions alongside the ongoing Iran crisis.
But the atmosphere heading into the summit is far from warm. As Greek daily Ta Nea reports, both sides have been “stretching the rope” in advance: the US recently imposed sanctions on three China-based companies accused of providing Tehran with satellite data to help target American military installations in the Persian Gulf. China, meanwhile, has reportedly encouraged Iran’s leadership to reject Washington’s latest diplomatic proposal.
With tariffs, artificial intelligence governance, and the Iran war all on the table, the summit represents one of the most consequential face-to-face meetings between the two superpowers in recent memory. Whether the presence of America’s tech moguls is intended as a gesture of goodwill or a show of economic leverage remains to be seen.
