Topic analysis

Elon Musk and Tim Cook among CEOs expected to accompany Trump on China trip

US President Donald Trump is expected to bring a host of top business and technology industry executives on his trip to China this week. Among those set to join the president on his official trip to Beijing are Tim Cook of Apple, Elon Musk of Tesla and SpaceX, Larry Fink of BlackRock, as well as other executives from Meta, Visa, JP Morgan, Boeing, Cargill and more. In total, 17 US executives will join Trump on the trip, a White House official with knowledge of the plans told the BBC. The trip is seen as important for the US, as Trump will meet with President Xi Jinping at a time of growing economic and technological animosity between the two countries. In addition to Musk, Cook and Fink, the full list of the executives set to join Trump as part of the official US delegation to China is as follows: Together, the executives represent a swath of US business interests, from social media and consumer hardware, to computer chips and commercial manufacturing. Representatives of the 17 companies did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Trump's visit to China marks a key test of a fragile trade truce between the two countries, following a tit-for-tat trade war which saw them roll out tariffs which at times topped 100%. The tariffs were paused in October 2025 after Trump's last meeting with Xi, which took place in South Korea. Looming large over the upcoming meeting will be the US and Israel's war in Iran , which has already forced a delay to Trump and Xi's meeting. Trump is expected to push China, which relies on Iran for cheap oil, to help facilitate an agreement between Tehran and Washington to end the war. China also wants the conflict to end. It has limited the supply of oil to the country, hitting the buying power of other countries around the world that import Chinese goods. But China's vast oil reserves and diverse energy supply have helped it so far in weathering the fallout of the war better than many neighbours.