When President Donald Trump visited Beijing last week he brought along some seventeen of the biggest names in the U.S. corporate world. By contrast, the Chinese side left some of the country’s most prominent business leaders off the invite list for the summit’s big dinner. 

Throughout the two-day talks, both Trump and Xi Jinping were keen to emphasize ‘stability’ when describing their relationship. In line with that theme, Beijing avoided spotlighting some of its most competitive and controversial market leaders in areas like electric vehicles, chips or AI. 

Instead, the likes of PC maker Lenovo and home-appliance giant Haier — which have a long-established presence in U.S. markets — represented the Chinese side at the state dinner last Thursday. Manufacturing companies long embedded into U.S. supply chains were also involved. 

Arguably the most controversial Chinese company attending was ByteDance — although even it has this year come to a settlement with the Trump administration over the future of its wildly popular social media app, TikTok, in the United States.

In this week’s Big Picture, The Wire China spotlights some of the Chinese executives and companies involved in the summit proceedings:

The America-Friendly Manufacturers

The five Chinese advanced manufacturing companies represented are already well-established in key U.S. supply chains. Some have set up plants in the country, and U.S. trade forms a core part of their business. 

Haier is the largest of these companies by revenue. It purchased GE Appliances for $5.6 billion in 2016, boosting the manufacturer’s U.S. presence. 

Lens Technology is another standout. At the banquet, the company’s chairman and founder Zhou Qunfei — one of the few female corporate leaders present from either side — sat between two of her customers, Tesla’s Elon Musk and Apple’s Tim Cook. 

A Sample of China’s Tech World

The U.S. delegation to China included some of the biggest names in tech: Tesla’s Elon Musk, Apple’s Tim Cook, and executives from Meta and chipmakers Micron and Qualcomm. 

Yet the leaders of China’s own internet giants Baidu, Alibaba, and Tencent were not present. Nor were newer names in cutting edge industries, such as AI firm DeepSeek or robotics sector leaders like Unitree and Agibot. 

ByteDance’s inclusion caps the company’s yearslong struggle with the U.S. government over TikTok. Trump took a personal interest in preserving U.S. users’ continued access to TikTok despite declaring the app a national security risk in his first term. In September 2025, he mandated ByteDance’s divestiture with an executive order to “save TikTok.” 

The Aviators

Among the modest summit outcomes was a commitment by China to purchase 200 U.S.-made Boeing aircraft. Boeing chief executive Kelly Ortberg made the trip: Two of his biggest Chinese customers were there to greet him.

On The Outside, Looking In

The list of exclusions includes some of the Chinese companies that broke the most ground in 2025, including DeepSeek and other AI firms, as well as many of China’s strongest internet and e-commerce players.

China’s green industry, too, was not represented. The industry faces strong headwinds in the west, including prohibitive U.S. tariffs on electric vehicles and solar components and growing EU pushback to Beijing’s green tech exports. And despite soft power wins from Labubu doll vendor Popmart and the expansion of Luckin Coffee, these brands didn’t make the cut.

---