President Donald Trump is bringing what amounts to an economic Avengers squad to Beijing. His meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, scheduled for May 14-15, includes a 17-person CEO delegation headlined by Elon Musk, Tim Cook, and BlackRock’s Larry Fink, among others.
The goal: renegotiate the terms of the world’s most consequential trade relationship. The US trade deficit with China hit $375 billion in 2025, and Trump wants that number moving in the other direction.
Wall Street meets the Great Wall
This is Trump’s first state visit to China since returning to office. Five billionaires in the delegation carry a combined net worth of roughly $870 billion.
The strategy mirrors Trump’s 2017 approach during his first term, when he brought business leaders to Beijing to signal American economic dominance. The difference this time is context: the prior trade war involved $350 billion in tariffs on Chinese goods and left both economies bruised.
