- Business execs and politicians will attend APEC in San Francisco this week.
- Chinese President Xi Jinping is slated to host an exclusive dinner for top executives during the summit.
- Tech leaders will have the opportunity to improve their business relationship with China.
Tech titans are expected to converge on San Francisco this week for some face time with the president of China.
For the first time in 12 years, the US is hosting the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting, and the stage is set for America-based CEOs to improve their professional relationship with China.
As such, a dinner invite from Chinese President Xi Jinping is highly coveted by executives attending the meeting.
Among those scheduled to attend APEC are Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Citigroup’s Jane Fraser, Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, and more.
Many leaders in tech have been invited to dinner with Xi, and others are trying their best to score a seat at the table, Bloomberg reported. Although the dinner isn’t listed on APEC’s official schedule, Reuters reported that it’s set to take place on Wednesday.
Exxon CEO Darren Woods is scheduled to deliver a speech called “Reframing the Climate Challenge: Keep the Energy, Curb the Emissions.” Meanwhile, Musk is set to talk with Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff for “a conversation on AI and the Future” on Thursday, according to the official site.
The US and China have a tense relationship that’s been strained by chip rivalries, geopolitics, and Taiwan. But business giants, like Apple, depend on China for manufacturing and its consumers.
Apple CEO Tim Cook isn’t set to attend APEC, but a government-affairs official will go in his place, according to Bloomberg.
“If Xi is going to meet these business leaders at this summit, they’ll be looking for signals that the US-China relationship is thawing,” Dan Prud’homme, an assistant professor of business at Florida International University, told Bloomberg.
China is facing its own economic woes with a property market reminiscent of the 2008 crisis in the US and high youth unemployment.
Xi is set to meet with President Joe Biden while at the summit, and the pair are expected to sign a deal that would limit the use of artificial intelligence in nuclear weapon control systems.
