More than a dozen of America's biggest CEOs are heading to Beijing with Trump this week.
The agenda is loaded. Boeing planes, rare earths, farm deals, the Iran war, and Taiwan are all on the table.
The U.S. group going to Beijing Thursday and Friday includes Tesla's Elon Musk, Apple's Tim Cook, BlackRock's Larry Fink, Boeing's Kelly Ortberg, and Citi's Jane Fraser.
It's smaller than last year's 30-plus exec trip to Saudi Arabia. Still, it's heavy on Fortune 500 names.
Boeing has the most to gain. Ortberg said on Boeing's last earnings call that China could soon order a "big number" of planes.
That would break a yearslong drought. Chinese carriers have leaned on rival Airbus for years.
Citi's Fraser told Bloomberg in November her bank is seeing new interest from Chinese investors.
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The White House framed the meeting around trade. The real wishlist is broader.
The U.S. wants relief on China's rare earth export controls. These are the materials that go into chips and electric cars.
Beijing's tight grip on those materials last year sent shockwaves through the chip supply chain.
The two sides also plan to set up a board to manage trade. There's another forum planned for talks about new investments.
Possible deals span aerospace, farming, and energy. Experts also expect China to buy U.S. soybeans or other farm goods that Beijing boycotted during the trade war.
The Iran war is now well past the Trump team's first guess of four to six weeks.
China is Iran's biggest trade partner and top oil buyer. That gives Beijing leverage Washington didn't plan for.
Higher gas prices at home have hit Trump's approval ratings.
On Taiwan, China is watching every word for a "language shift" from Trump. He told reporters Monday that selling U.S. weapons to Taiwan would be "one of the many things I'll be talking about" with Xi.
A senior U.S. official told reporters Sunday the team does not see any changes in U.S. policy toward Taiwan.
Russia's Vladimir Putin is set to visit Beijing days after Trump leaves. An Iranian official met with Chinese counterparts in Beijing last week.
That sequence puts China at the center of three of the biggest global stories right now. Every U.S. exec in the room knows it.
The trade war from last year cooled in the fall after talks. In February, the Supreme Court struck down Trump's "reciprocal" tariffs as unconstitutional, which eased some of the heat.
Trump teased the meeting on Truth Social on Monday. He wrote that "great things will happen for both Countries."
The White House said the trip's main goal is "rebalancing the relationship with China and prioritizing reciprocity and fairness." That's a polite way of saying Washington wants better terms.
Analysts say both sides just want to reset the relationship and avoid a flare-up. The CEOs flying over are betting that's enough to start moving deals again.
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