President Donald Trump does not plan to bring up allegations of a Chinese intelligence operation involving former Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang during his upcoming meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, according to senior U.S. officials who spoke on Friday. Officials also announced that Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk will travel with Trump to Shenzhen, China, for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit scheduled for November 18 and 19.
Upcoming APEC Summit and Three-Way Talks
The White House stated earlier on Friday that Trump intends to participate in a three-way summit in Shenzhen alongside Xi and Russian President Vladimir Putin. An anonymous official noted on a press call that the Nvidia situation should not impact the trip, emphasizing that American export controls are not negotiated during discussions with Chinese counterparts.
When questioned about whether Trump would address the allegations concerning Alice Huang directly with Xi, an official explained that the economic focus of the meeting with Xi will center on implementing the trade agreement. The official added that current U.S. national security examinations and investigations are not matters they intend to brief the Chinese on at this time. Another official confirmed that the president is not expected to raise the Alice Huang issue.
Nvidia Scandal and Elon Musk’s Trip
The controversy stems from reports regarding Jensen Huang’s relationship with Alice Huang, who is not related to him. Alice Huang served as an executive at a Singapore-based cloud-computing company, Megaspeed, which is under scrutiny for potentially facilitating the diversion of restricted Nvidia chips to China in violation of U.S. regulations. China has previously dismissed the allegations against Alice Huang as baseless.
Jensen Huang stepped down from his position as Nvidia’s CEO following the reports of his affair with Alice Huang, a scandal that has shaken the company and prompted questions regarding whether the Commerce Department, headed by Howard Lutnick, has been sufficiently aggressive in preventing advanced chips from reaching China.
Addressing reporter inquiries about Musk’s presence on the delegation, an official declined to speak directly for the president on the matter. The official stated that Musk maintains significant business interests tied to the U.S.-China relationship and plays a major role in national security, making him a valuable advisor to the president during the upcoming engagements.
