BlackRock CEO Larry Fink, Apple CEO Tim Cook, Boeing Commercial Airplanes CEO Stanley A. Deal, and Elon Musk are among the group of elite executives who attended last night’s dinner event with Chinese President Xi Jinping in downtown San Francisco. Attendees paid $40,000 to be seated at Xi’s table, with CNBC reporting that Tim Cook was among one of the eight seats, being seated next to Chinese Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao.
Xi delivered a keynote address, and stated, “The number one question for us is, are we adversaries or partners?” He then expressed that China wants a “win-win” partnership with the United States. In a gesture of diplomacy, Xi also announced that the San Diego Zoo would be receiving pandas, with three recently leaving the Smithsonian National Zoo and returning to China. “We are ready to continue our cooperation with the United States on panda conservation and do our best to meet the wishes of the Californians, so as to deepen friendly ties between our two peoples.”
Representative Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.), chair of the U.S. House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, is skeptical of Xi’s claims of his desire to improve U.S.-China relations, saying on Fox News, “If we’re wagering the fate of the free world on the fact that Xi has to deal with domestic economic and demographic issues, that’s a stupid bet because it is just as likely that Xi could get more aggressive in order to distract from those issues.” On X, the committee called Xi a “genocidal communist”: “BREAKING: List of elite American executives dining with genocidal communist “Guest of Honor” Xi Jinping last night for $40,000 in San Francisco.”
