US President Donald Trump will host a state dinner at the White House on the evening of 24 September in honour of Chinese President Xi Jinping, with some of the United States’ leading technology and business executives attending. The dinner forms part of a three-day official visit taking place as tensions and strategic competition between Washington and Beijing intensify.
Invited technology and business leaders
The guest list includes Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, SpaceX and Tesla chairman Elon Musk, and OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman, according to a US official who disclosed details of the expected attendees on Friday.
Also invited to the dinner are Nvidia chief Jensen Huang, Google chief executive Sundar Pichai, Dell Technologies founder Michael Dell and Citigroup chief executive Jane Fraser. Tim Cook, who stepped down as Apple’s chief executive last month, has also been given a seat at the event.
Musk, Huang, Cook and Fraser previously accompanied Trump during his visit to Beijing, where they attended a banquet hosted by Xi for the US president in the Great Hall of the People. Their renewed presence reflects the role major corporate leaders play in contacts surrounding relations between the two countries, alongside official political meetings.
Xi’s visit programme and official reception ceremony
The Chinese president is due to arrive in Washington on Wednesday, with Trump expected to travel personally to greet him as his aircraft lands at Joint Base Andrews. The following day, the two presidents will hold the main bilateral summit meetings, before the state dinner takes place at the White House on Thursday evening.
Xi’s reception will be the second official event of its kind hosted by Trump and First Lady Melania Trump during the current term, after they welcomed King Charles III and Queen Camilla last April. The visit programme includes an official reception ceremony, an honour guard inspection and a special programme for the two spouses, alongside the formal dinner, giving it a broader character than the routine working visits made by national leaders.
A senior US administration official involved in preparations for the visit described the formal dinner as “the most important invitation in town”, explaining that senior politicians, business leaders and technology executives are competing for the “very limited number of seats” available at the event.
This dinner matters enormously, because China is the biggest of all, and everyone wants a place at the table
Dinner amid US-China competition in artificial intelligence
The visit is taking place as US-China relations face mounting tensions, particularly as competition between the two countries for technological dominance in artificial intelligence intensifies. The presence of influential US business leaders gives the dinner an economic and technological dimension, as the two presidents discuss strategic issues affecting both countries and the international community.
Ambassador Monica Crowley, the US chief of protocol, said Trump and Melania “look forward to welcoming President Xi and Madame Peng to the United States for their first state visit in 11 years”.
She added that “the grandeur of this three-day event reflects the importance of the bilateral relationship and the strategic issues affecting our two countries and the world”, noting that the president and first lady had carefully prepared the details of the visit.
