A Closer Look at Who’s in the U.S. Delegation to China

By Pablo Robles, Agnes Chang, Catie Edmondson and Chris Buckley May 14, 2026

Government officials and Trump aides

Business executives

Natalie Harp

White House aide

Margo Martin

Trump’s communications

adviser

Chamberlain Harris

White House staff

Ryan

McInerney

Visa

Kelly Ortberg

Boeing

Michael Miebach

Mastercard

Elon

Musk

Tesla,

SpaceX

Cristiano Amon

Qualcomm

Larry Culp

GE Aerospace

Stephen A.

Schwarzman

Blackstone

Brian Sikes

Cargill

Jacob Thaysen

Illumina

Jensen Huang

Nvidia

Jane Fraser

Citi

Monica Crowley

Chief of protocol

Sanjay Mehrotra

Micron

Anna Kelly

A White House

spokeswoman

David Solomon

Goldman Sachs

Tim Cook

Apple

Scott

Bessent

Treasury

Secretary

Eric Trump

David Perdue

Ambassador

of the U.S.

to China

Jamieson Greer

U.S. trade

representative

Pete

Hegseth

Defense

Michael Kratsios

Trump’s science adviser

Robert Gabriel Jr.

Trump’s adviser

Lara Trump

Marco Rubio

of State

Stephen Miller

A top aide

to Trump

Steven Cheung

White House

communications

director

James Blair

Trump

Xi Jinping

Photograph by Alex Wong/Getty Images

The U.S. delegation that stood at attention at the Great Hall of the People on Thursday as President Trump and President Xi Jinping kicked off a high-stakes summit in Beijing offered one of the clearest glimpses of what is on the agenda.

At the front of the receiving line were some of Mr. Trump’s most influential cabinet members, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

In a succession of striking scenes, each of the officials, who have at times been unsparing in their criticism of Beijing across a range of economic and military issues, shook Mr. Xi’s hand, in accordance with event protocol.

Mr. Rubio, a fierce China hawk, was sanctioned by Beijing in 2020 over comments he made about human rights abuses in the Xinjiang region. Mr. Bessent has described Beijing as an “unreliable trade partner.” And Mr. Hegseth has criticized China’s “destabilizing actions” in the South China Sea as an urgent “wake-up call” to the world.

Rubio

Monica

Crowley

Photos by Kenny Holston/The New York Times and Evan Vucci/Reuters

Mr. Xi also shook hands with Stephen Miller, Mr. Trump’s deputy chief of staff, who has accused China of having “distorted the entire global trading system” through “theft.” Flanking Mr. Miller was James Blair, a deputy chief of staff trusted with guiding the president’s legislative agenda through Congress, who is currently in charge of steering Mr. Trump’s political operation ahead of the midterm elections in November.

Standing behind Mr. Trump’s most senior staff was a phalanx of leaders of industry, many of whom want more access to the Chinese market. Brian Sikes, the chief executive of the agricultural giant Cargill, is seeking to restore purchases of U.S. beef, sorghum and soybeans. Kelly Ortberg, the chief executive at Boeing, is likewise hoping to win a major order from China.

The presence of semiconductor executives — Jensen Huang of Nvidia, Sanjay Mehrotra of Micron and Cristiano Amon of Qualcomm — underscored that Mr. Xi will likely raise the issue of the export controls the United States has put in place to block China’s access to advanced technologies.

The team of Chinese officials who accompanied Mr. Xi to the talks included loyalists whom Mr. Xi has long turned to for support and counsel.

Cai Qi

Xi’s right hand man

He Lifeng

China’s vice premier

Lan Fo’an

Minister of Finance

Wang Wentao

Minister of

Commerce

Wang Yi

China’s top

diplomat

Cai Wei

Assistant Minister

of Foreign Affaris

Xie Feng

Ambassador of

China to the U.S.

Dong Jun

National Defense

Ma Zhaoxu

Vice Minister of

Foreign Affairs

Zheng Shanjie

economic planner

Photograph by Mark Schiefelbein/Associated Press

Chief among them was Cai Qi, the director of the office that manages the Communist Party leadership’s affairs, as well as He Lifeng, a vice premier overseeing economic policy. Both have ties to Mr. Xi going back to their earlier careers as local officials in eastern China. Wang Yi was Mr. Xi’s foreign minister for over a decade and returned to that job after his successor fell in scandal.

The lineup of officials also included lesser-known faces whose value for Mr. Xi probably lies in their technical competence and experience, such as Wang Wentao, the minister of commerce.