US Business Executives Gather at Xi Jinping's Dinner... Google CEO Absent

Apple, Tesla, BlackRock CEOs All Gather
Google, Expelled from China in 2010, Absent

It has been reported that major U.S. corporate CEOs attended a dinner hosted by Chinese President Xi Jinping immediately following the U.S.-China summit. While Apple CEO Tim Cook, whose attendance had been uncertain, was present, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, who was expelled from China in 2010, did not attend, drawing attention to the background of this decision.

[Image source=Reuters Yonhap News]

According to foreign media including CNN and China's Xinhua News Agency on the 15th (local time), at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit held in San Francisco, U.S., President Xi met with U.S. President Joe Biden for over four hours before moving to the dinner venue to meet with heads of major U.S. companies.

At the dinner, CEOs of major IT companies such as Tim Cook of Apple, Elon Musk of Tesla, Cristiano Amon of Qualcomm, and Hock Tan of Broadcom all attended. In addition, Larry Fink, chairman of the world's largest asset management firm BlackRock, Steve Schwarzman, founder of the large U.S. private equity firm Blackstone, Ryan McInerney, CEO of Visa, and other representatives of major U.S. financial firms were present. Albert Bourla, CEO of global pharmaceutical company Pfizer, was also on the attendee list.

Notably, Tim Cook of Apple was initially not listed as an attendee and was expected to be represented by another executive, but he ultimately attended the dinner in person. It is also reported that he met with President Yoon Suk-yeol before the dinner. However, Sundar Pichai of Google, a competitor of Apple, ultimately did not attend. This is analyzed to be due to the cold relations following Google's expulsion from the Chinese market in 2010.

[Image source=Reuters Yonhap News]

Meanwhile, President Xi welcomed the corporate executives attending the dinner, stating, "China is ready to be a partner and friend of the United States." He emphasized, "We welcome more U.S. governors and members of Congress to visit China. Over the next five years, we will invite 50,000 American youths to engage in exchanges with China," highlighting the intention to increase bilateral exchanges.

Meanwhile, attendance at this private dinner event was limited to 300 people. Especially, seats at the same table as President Xi were priced at $40,000 (approximately 52 million KRW) per seat, and fierce competition for these seats among the U.S. business community became a topic of interest.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.