Google in, but Nvidia out as US lines up Apec CEO Summit delegation: source

Representatives from Google and Boeing will be included in the United States’ business delegation at next week’s Apec CEO Summit in Shenzhen, the event organiser has confirmed.

But a source familiar with the arrangements said Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang was unlikely to attend at this stage, with many high-profile executives yet to confirm their participation.

The China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT), the summit’s organiser, said Google, Boeing, UBS and the Thai conglomerate Charoen Pokphand Group were among the companies that had already applied to attend the meeting, according to a report by state broadcaster CCTV on Wednesday.

The Apec CEO Summit – which will bring together more than 2,000 attendees from business, government and the media – will be held on November 17 and 18, directly before the leaders’ meeting on November 18 and 19.

US President Donald Trump has confirmed he will attend the latter gathering, where he is expected to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping for the third time this year, after earlier bilateral meetings in Beijing and Washington.

Trump planned to bring Tesla and SpaceX chief Elon Musk and Mastercard’s Michael Miebach on his trip to China, the South China Morning Post previously reported. The executives also accompanied the president during his state visit to Beijing in May.

Both Google and Boeing have been caught up in the rising geopolitical tensions between the world’s two largest economies. Last year, Beijing targeted Google with an antitrust probe amid the height of the US-China tariff war.

China agreed to purchase at least 200 Boeing aircraft in May following a meeting between Xi and Trump, according to the White House, but progress on the deal has since appeared to stall.

In late September, US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer indicated that China was in the process of placing firm orders for 140 Boeing planes, with paperwork for another 10 also in progress.

The commitment would mark Boeing’s first major deal in China in nearly a decade, after the US planemaker lost ground in the market amid strained bilateral relations and a string of safety incidents, with Chinese airlines increasingly turning to European rival Airbus.

Meanwhile, Nvidia CEO Huang’s participation in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meetings is now in doubt, as the executive comes under scrutiny amid reports he allegedly had an affair with a Chinese businesswoman suspected of passing information to Beijing.

Republican chairmen of three US House committees have asked Huang to attend a closed-door briefing on November 18 to discuss his relationship with Alice Huang, a former executive at Singapore-based artificial intelligence computing firm Megaspeed. Huang has yet to confirm if he will attend the briefing.

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On Sunday, Trump said he “would certainly take” Huang to Apec, adding: “I haven’t heard he’s done anything wrong.” Beijing has rejected the espionage claims as “baseless”.

Representatives from all 21 Apec economies are expected to take part at the Apec CEO Summit, as well as nations including the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Switzerland, CCTV reported, citing the CCPIT.