U.S. President Donald Trump arrived in Beijing on Wednesday for a two-night, three-day state visit, with his family members and Tesla (TSLA) CEO Elon Musk notably included in the delegation.
When Trump descended the stairs of Air Force One at Beijing Capital International Airport around 8 p.m., his second son Eric Trump and daughter-in-law Lara Trump were the first to appear behind him. Family members took precedence over senior administration officials in the procession.
First Lady Melania Trump, who accompanied Trump on his November 2017 visit to China during his first term, did not join this trip.
Following the Eric Trump couple was Elon Musk, who has oscillated between close ally and political adversary before recently restoring ties with the president. While Musk's relationship with Trump had been shaken by past conflicts, the two are seen as having reconciled.
Musk, who operates a massive Tesla factory in Shanghai, is likely to be directly affected by the outcome of this summit. Shifts in U.S. policy toward China could significantly impact electric vehicle supply chains and production strategies.
Next, drawing significant attention, was Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. His visit marks the first trip to China by a sitting U.S. defense secretary in eight years, since James Mattis during Trump's first term in 2018. A sitting U.S. defense secretary accompanying a presidential visit to China has not occurred in more than half a century, since former President Richard Nixon's 1972 visit.
Hong Kong's South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported it has been 54 years since a U.S. defense secretary accompanied a president to China. With the possibility of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan emerging as a core U.S. security concern, Hegseth's visit is also interpreted as a message of restraint from the United States toward China.
On the trade front, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer took the lead. The two sides are expected to maintain the "truce" in the U.S.-China trade war while discussing the establishment of a new consultative body for stabilizing trade and investment.
While Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick is considered the Trump administration's signature trade negotiator, Bessent has played the central role in working-level negotiations with China. Just before this trip, Bessent held preliminary talks with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng at Incheon International Airport.
Also accompanying the delegation were major Wall Street and Big Tech figures, including BlackRock's Larry Fink, Blackstone's Stephen Schwarzman, Boeing's Kelly Ortberg, Goldman Sachs' David Solomon, Meta's Dina Powell McCormick, Qualcomm's Cristiano Amon, and Micron's Sanjay Mehrotra.
