“American chief executives turned out in force to see Xi Jinping, while their Chinese counterparts were absent, a sign of how drastically business ties have changed.
When China’s leader, Xi Jinping, traveled to the United States in 2015 for his first state visit, he brought a delegation of Chinese chief executives to meet their American counterparts.
Disputes over human rights, cyberattacks and trade were straining relations.
But Washington and Beijing still shared an undeniable common interest: making money in each other’s markets.
A decade later, the contrast with this week’s summit between President Trump and Mr. Xi could not be more stark. No prominent Chinese chief executives attended Thursday night’s state dinner at the White House.
“It’s a rather depressing marker of how bad the relationship has gotten,” said Emily Kilcrease, a senior fellow and director at the Center for a New American Security focused on the U.S.-China economic relationship.
“One of the highlights of this summit was supposed to be some level of announcement of commercial deals,” said Ms. Kilcrease, a former deputy assistant U.S. trade representative. “But it seems like we can’t even get to agreement on some of that.”
The absence of Chinese business leaders was a small but telling illustration of how thoroughly the economic relationship between the two countries has changed. In 2015, high-profile tech executives were among those traveling with Mr. Xi, including Alibaba’s Jack Ma and Tencent’s Pony Ma. Their companies were expanding rapidly, and both sides saw enormous opportunities in deeper commercial ties.
That era is over.
Beginning in Mr. Trump’s first term, the two countries have imposed waves of tariffs on each other. Washington restricted access to some of America’s most advanced technology and limited U.S. investments in parts of China’s high-tech sector. The United States slapped 100 percent tariffs and imposed restrictions on internet-connected vehicles from China, making it financially unviable for the country’s electric vehicles to enter the United States.
Beijing retaliated with its own trade restrictions, including controls on exports of rare-earth metals and rare-earth magnets essential to U.S. manufacturers.
At the same time, Chinese companies have evolved from prospective customers and partners for American businesses into some of their most formidable competitors.
And many of China’s most prominent entrepreneurs now come from industries like artificial intelligence, robotics and electric vehicles — the exact technologies Washington and Beijing are competing most intensely for.
It would be difficult to imagine, for example, seeing the DeepSeek co-founder Liang Wenfeng showcased alongside the OpenAI chief executive, Sam Altman, at a state dinner.
Yet until days before the summit, Chinese officials expected they might bring a business delegation to Washington, according to two people familiar with the discussions who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to disclose details of the private conversations.
It was unclear which executives were under consideration, although reports had mentioned Wang Chuanfu, founder of the electric carmaker BYD, and Robin Zeng, chief executive of the battery maker CATL. Their presence would have allowed Mr. Xi to highlight China’s dominance in battery technology and renewable energy.
In the end, none received invitations.
Several top Chinese executives arrived in Washington shortly before the summit and held meetings outside the official gathering.
“There are a number of important Chinese C.E.O.s in Washington, waiting on the sidelines, like: ‘Do I get tapped or not?’” said Jeremy Chan, a senior China analyst at Eurasia Group and a former American diplomat who worked in China. “The whole thing is crazy. It would be comical if it weren’t so tragic.”
There was another complication: Some prominent Chinese companies face U.S. restrictions, making their appearance at a White House state dinner politically fraught. In June, the U.S. Department of Defense had included Alibaba and BYD in its expanded list of firms it identified as “Chinese military companies.”
“It would actually be seen by some in Washington as provocative to bring these companies along,” said Ilaria Mazzocco, a deputy director at the Center for Strategic and International Studies specializing in Chinese business and economics.
The contrast was especially striking compared with the scene when Mr. Trump visited Beijing in May.
Apple’s Tim Cook, Tesla’s Elon Musk and other executives of top American companies stood on the steps of Beijing’s Great Hall of the People just behind senior U.S. officials. Mr. Trump told Mr. Xi that he had brought “the greatest businessmen, the biggest, and I guess the best, in the world.”
Mr. Trump added, “I didn’t want the second or the third in the company, I wanted only the top, and they’re here today to pay respects to you and to China.”
On Thursday, many of the same executives from U.S. firms were present again. Alongside Mr. Cook and Mr. Musk were Nvidia’s Jensen Huang, Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, OpenAI’s Mr. Altman, Microsoft’s Satya Nadella and General Motors’ Mary Barra.
Earlier in the day, Mr. Xi said in a speech that China “welcomes American companies wanting to invest and do business there.” Then, in an apparent reference to the U.S. restrictions on Chinese firms operating in America, he added: “We hope Chinese companies are treated fairly here in the United States.”
While American companies have not given up on China, they are struggling to compete against its companies. American automakers have lost ground to Chinese electric vehicle makers. Apple faces intense competition from Huawei. Nike is battling increasingly popular Chinese brands.
Yet China remains too large and too deeply embedded in global manufacturing for many American companies to ignore. A 2026 survey by the U.S.-China Business Council found that 80 percent of American companies still regarded the Chinese market as either “very important” or “important” because of its scale and industrial ecosystem.
For Chinese companies, the calculation about the United States is increasingly different. Tariffs, political scrutiny, investment restrictions and national security rules have made entering or expanding in the United States far more difficult, particularly for companies in strategic industries.
Joerg Wuttke, a partner at DGA-Albright Stonebridge Group, a Washington-based consultancy, said seeing so many American business executives “kissing Xi’s ring” underscored how lopsided the relationship had become.
“Is there anybody from China interested in doing business in America?” Mr. Wuttke said. “No, because it’s not possible. So why should they waste their time?”” [1]
1. Missing From the Trump-Xi State Dinner: China’s Business Leaders. Sui-Lee, Wee. New York Times (Online) New York Times Company. Sep 25, 2026.
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