Inside Trump’s plane to China for first visit by US president in nearly a decade
Donald Trump is on his first state visit to China since 2017, but the president is not alone on his travels to Beijing.
Trump will arrive in China today (May 13) and is expected to talk about trade with Chinese leader Xi Jinping 'more than anything else'.
Trump also thinks he'll be greeted with a 'big, fat hug' from Xi, despite the tensions he caused last year following his sky-high tariffs on China.
As well as trade (and hugs, apparently), it's likely the two world leaders will touch upon the ongoing conflict between the US, Iran and Israel amid reports that American officials have been urging China to put pressure on Tehran to reopen the strait of Hormuz, per The Guardian, and to accept Trump's peace terms.
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The president isn't flying solo to China, either. He has a host of top executives in tow on Air Force One to talk all things business.
Who is traveling with Trump?
According to Newsweek, some of the biggest names from the chip industry, finance, agriculture, aerospace, technology and payments are headed to China with the president.
Representatives from the likes of Mastercard, Visa, Goldman Sachs, BlackRock, and Meta are all with Trump on Air Force Once.
The full list of people on their way to Beijing includes:
- Tim Cook - Apple
- Elon Musk - Tesla/SpaceX
- David Solomon - Goldman Sachs
- Kelly Ortberg - Boeing
- Brian Sikes - Cargill
- Cristiano Amon - Qualcomm
- Steven Schwarzman - Blackstone
- Larry Fink - BlackRock
- Jane Fraser - Citi
- Jim Anderson - Coherent
- Henry Lawrence Culp - GE Aerospace
- Jacob Thaysen - Illumina
- Michael Miebach - Mastercard
- Dina Powell McCormick - Meta
- Sanjay Mehrotra - Micron
- Ryan McInerney - Visa
- Jensen Huang - Nvidia
Musk confirmed his attendance earlier today and wrote on Twitter (which he's since renamed as X): "On my way to Beijing in Air Force One."
Who was the last president to visit China?
Prior to Trump's 2017 visit, Barack Obama – who Trump recently described as 'demonic' – was the last president to travel to China.
It's thought that during his presidency, Obama traveled to Beijing on three difference occasions, one of which was for the 2014 APEC meeting, says CGTN.
While three visits is quite a lot, it was actually George W. Bush who visited China more than any US president.
He flew there four times between 2001 and 2009. His last trip was in August 2008 for the Olympics.
Topics: Donald Trump, China, Business, Tim Cook, Elon Musk, News
Niamh Shackleton