Executives from BYD, CATL and Xiaomi may join Xi’s Washington visit, Reuters reports

Xi Jinping is scheduled to be in Washington on September 24 for a state visit, and some of China’s largest manufacturers may accompany him, Reuters reported. The information on which ones is still unknown, and the trip itself has not been officially confirmed.

According to Reuters, citing three individuals familiar with the situation, the seven companies under consideration for the delegation could be the carmaker BYD, the battery manufacturers CATL and Gotion, the phone and electric-vehicle firm Xiaomi, the consumer-electronics company Hisense, the auto-parts company Wanxiang, and Bank of China.

The companies that are to go are expected to attend a White House state dinner, the two sources stated. Still, the list has not yet been finalized, and invitations are due to be sent out within a few days, with no individual executives named in the report.

BYD refused to comment to Reuters; the other six did not reply to the agency’s requests for comment, and we have not independently verified the report.

The South China Morning Post listed the companies first, having reported a day earlier that executives from BYD, Xiaomi, the optical components company Zhongji Innolight, and the Bank of China were expected to travel, based on information from two individuals who were aware of the situation.

The agenda includes an agreement involving the Board of Trade, licenses for the export of rare earths to American companies, and an extension of the trade truce obtained in October.

It is up to the meeting between the US Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent, and Vice Premier He Lifeng over the weekend to determine whether any of these points will be realized.

The White House has rejected a proposed roundtable meeting between the chief executives of the US and China, and no meetings organized by think-tanks or business groups are scheduled. Chinese companies have been instructed to get ready until it is confirmed.

A guest list of that kind would be rather unusual for a state dinner. Both CATL and BYD are on the Pentagon’s list of Chinese military companies, a classification that BYD has threatened to challenge legally and that CATL is currently appealing.

Gotion is involved in a legal dispute with Michigan officials over a $2.36bn battery plant that was blocked. Wanxiang paid $53m to settle customs violations.

Chinese electric vehicles already face 100% US tariffs, in addition to restrictions on their software and hardware, meaning that several of the companies reportedly invited to the dinner are precisely the ones the tariffs were designed to target.

It has been the Americans who have been more outspoken. Trump set the date himself in July and has now confirmed to Reuters that Xi will receive a state dinner.

Beijing has said nothing; the Chinese foreign ministry stated that it has no information on the delegation, and the diplomatic timetable it published does not include the visit. Both the State Department and the White House refused to give further comments to Reuters.

The two accounts state that the invitations were sent within a few days, and until they are issued, the delegation is just a list of companies that have been informed to be ready.