Why did Nvidia founder Jensen Huang’s last-minute participation in the China visit attract such wide attention? What does the presence of US business leaders reveal about the future of #China-#US economic and technological engagement? Prof. Wang Dong, in an exclusive interview with China Review News Agency@GRNTT, analyzes the industrial complementarity reflected in the U.S. business delegation's visit to China and Jensen Huang's attendance, as well as the prospects for future pragmatic China-U.S. trade cooperation.
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Wang Dong: Jensen Huang’s Presence Reflects a US Strategic Arrangement, Leaving Room for Manoeuvre amid Competition
China Review News, Beijing, May 15 — The China-US heads-of-state summit was held on the morning of May 14. More than a dozen representatives from the US business community, including Nvidia founder Jensen Huang, were also present at the meeting. In an exclusive interview with China Review News Agency, Prof. Wang Dong, Professor at the School of International Studies, Peking University, observed that Huang’s last-minute participation in the visit to China was by no means accidental. Rather, it may be understood as a targeted arrangement by the US side at a critical moment of the summit.
Prof. Wang is a tenured professor at the School of International Studies, Peking University. He currently serves as Deputy Director of the Department of Social Sciences of Peking University and Director of its Think Tank Office, as well as Executive Director of the Ministry of Education’s iGCU. With profound academic expertise in international relations, he has published numerous Chinese- and English-language monographs and articles in leading international journals. He is widely recognized as a prominent scholar in the fields of China-US relations and global governance.
The US business representatives accompanying President Trump on this visit to China came from sectors including technology, finance, agriculture and aviation. Prof. Wang pointed out that these sectors are highly consistent with the industrial complementarities and practical development needs of both China and the United States.
“From the US perspective, agriculture and aviation are traditional export sectors in which the United States enjoys comparative advantages. These sectors are highly dependent on China’s vast market and urgently need stable trade channels with China as well as broader space for cooperation. Enterprises in finance and high-end technology, meanwhile, attach great importance to the development potential of the Chinese market and hope to seize the policy dividends brought by China’s continued opening-up,” Prof. Wang said.
From China’s perspective, he continued, pragmatic cooperation in these sectors can both meet the practical needs of domestic livelihood improvement and industrial upgrading and promote mutually beneficial two-way economic and trade exchanges. “In essence, this is a rational choice made by both sides on the basis of their respective comparative advantages and shared interests. It is also a direct reflection of the resilience of China-US economic and trade cooperation.”
After the news of Trump’s visit to China was confirmed, the list of US business representatives accompanying the delegation circulated widely online. Jensen Huang’s last-minute participation, in particular, generated intense public discussion. Why has the question of whether Huang would join the delegation attracted such high attention?
Prof. Wang argued that the reason lies in the fact that high-end technology has already become a core area of concern in China-US interaction. As the global leader in the AI chip industry, Nvidia’s movements themselves serve as an important barometer of China-US technological, economic and trade relations.
According to Prof. Wang, the arrangement for Huang to board Air Force One at the last moment was not accidental. It can be seen as a targeted move by the US side at a key juncture of the meeting. On the one hand, the United States hopes to use such core technology enterprises to bring issues of concern to itself onto the agenda of high-level communication, thereby reserving room for strategic bargaining. On the other hand, this also reflects the US side’s unwillingness to completely sever the technological and industrial ties between China and the United States, as well as its practical consideration of the commercial interests of US enterprises. It is, therefore, a pragmatic operation that leaves room for manoeuvre amid competition and preserves communication channels amid rivalry.
During the meeting, Chinese President Xi Jinping stated that the economic and trade teams of the two countries had achieved “generally balanced and positive outcomes.” Since China and the United States restarted their high-level dialogue mechanism in May 2025, the two sides have held seven rounds of economic and trade consultations. On the day before the summit, the two sides also held consultations in the Republic of Korea, during which they conducted candid, in-depth and constructive exchanges on resolving economic and trade issues of mutual concern and further expanding pragmatic cooperation.
Prof. Wang believed that the characterization of the outcomes as “generally balanced and positive” conveys three layers of meaning.
First, China-US economic and trade consultations have moved away from the abnormal state of unilateral pressure and confrontational bargaining, returning instead to a rational track of equal consultation and mutual accommodation.
Second, the outcomes of this round of consultations take into account the core interests and reasonable concerns of both sides. They neither tilt unilaterally toward one party nor allow differences to spiral out of control. Instead, they have achieved a balance at the level of mutual benefit.
Third, this characterization clarifies that stability remains the overriding priority in China-US economic and trade relations. It confirms that economic and trade ties remain the ballast of bilateral relations, laying a pragmatic foundation for continued communication and the resolution of frictions. It also sends a positive signal to global markets that economic and trade relations between major powers are moving toward greater stability.
During the meeting, the heads of state of China and the United States both made positive remarks on pragmatic cooperation between the business communities of the two countries. Prof. Wang analyzed that, on this basis, China-US economic and trade cooperation is likely to usher in new opportunities characterized by bottom-line thinking and pragmatic engagement.
He predicted that cooperation in traditional areas of comparative advantage, such as agricultural trade, aviation services and energy cooperation, would be the first to resume and steadily expand in scale. At the same time, on the premise of safeguarding security bottom lines, limited and targeted pragmatic cooperation may also become possible in areas such as high-end manufacturing, green and low-carbon development, and artificial intelligence.
Reposted with the author's authorization.
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