Elon Musk, Apple’s Tim Cook to head to China with Trump, per White House

Top U.S. executives, including Tesla’s Elon Musk and Apple’s Tim Cook, will accompany U.S. President Donald Trump on his visit to China this week, a White House official said Monday.

Beijing has said it is ready to work with the United States in pursuit of “more stability” and confirmed that Trump will visit, the first US president to do so since 2017. His trip runs from Wednesday to Friday.

Washington and Beijing have been at loggerheads over key issues ranging from trade tariffs to the Iran war to Taiwan, which China claims as part of its territory.

While in Beijing, Trump will hold talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping, with the countries’ myriad trade and economic issues on the table.

Trump and Xi agreed in October to a one-year truce in a blistering trade war that saw tariffs on many goods exceed 100 percent.

The U.S. president has been pressuring companies to build manufacturing facilities in the United States, a bid to both reduce imports and increase domestic economic activity.

Many top tech companies’ supply chains, however, heavily involve China, making them particularly exposed to bilateral trade tensions.

The United States has also sought to block China from accessing the highest-end artificial intelligence chips from US companies.

According to a list shared by a White House official, speaking on condition of anonymity, Musk and Cook will be accompanied by 15 other chief executive officers.

They include the chiefs of Boeing, GE Aerospace, Citi, Goldman Sachs, Mastercard and Visa.

Among tech companies, top executives from Cisco, Meta, Micron and Qualcomm will be on the trip, the official said.

Musk, the richest person in the world, heavily backed Trump on the campaign trail for his second term as US president, contributing more than $280 million.

The two had a public falling out in July last year, but appear to have since reconciled, with Musk reappearing in White House circles.