Billionaire founder of SpaceX, Elon Musk, and the outgoing CEO of Apple, Tim Cook, are among several top American business leaders invited to join US President Donald Trump’s delegation to China this week, according to a list shared by a White House official.

The visit comes as Trump prepares to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing for talks expected to focus on trade, energy, and economic relations.

The meeting is also taking place as tensions surrounding the war with Iran continue to affect global oil markets and supply chains.

Many of the executives attending the trip have major business interests in China.

Others invited to be part of the delegation include:

Tim Cook of Apple Inc.

Larry Fink of BlackRock

Stephen Schwarzman of Blackstone Inc.

Kelly Ortberg of Boeing

David Solomon of Goldman Sachs

Dina Powell McCormick of Meta Platforms

Sanjay Mehrotra of Micron Technology

Cristiano Amon of Qualcomm

Jacob Thaysen of Illumina

Michael Miebach of Mastercard

Ryan McInerney of Visa Inc.

Brian Sikes of Cargill

Jane Fraser of Citigroup

Chuck Robbins of Cisco

Jim Anderson of Coherent Corp.

H. Lawrence Culp Jr. of GE Aerospace

President Trump on Monday said he plans to discuss economic and energy matters during the meeting.

“I have a great relationship with President Xi,” the president told reporters in the Oval Office. “We’re doing a lot of business, but it’s smart business. We used to be taken advantage of for years with our previous presidents. And now we’re doing great with China. We make a lot of money with China.”

The president had earlier delayed his China trip because of the conflict involving Iran. On Monday, Trump criticised Iran’s response to a US proposal aimed at ending the war.

He called the response “unacceptable” and “garbage,” saying the ongoing ceasefire is “unbelievably weak” and “on life support.” (CBS)

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