Chinese President Xi Jinping to attend top-level business summit during visit to United States
Former US treasury secretary Henry Paulson to chair roundtable with 30 executives from the likes of Alibaba, Baidu, Microsoft and Amazon
In a bid to strengthen economic ties between China and the United States, President Xi Jinping will meet leading businessmen from the two countries in Seattle during his first state visit to the US this week.
In a related move, a leading think tank in the US is calling on both sides to prioritise bilateral investment treaty discussions, which it believes will help bolster business ties between Beijing and Washington amid the two parties' growing competition over security issues.
READ MORE: Everything you need to know about Xi Jinping’s US visit: itinerary, issues and delegation
Xi will deliver a policy speech and participate in a dialogue with 15 executives from each country at a roundtable discussion on September 23 co-hosted by the US non-profit think tank, the Paulson Institute, and a Chinese trade promotion council. The executives represent diverse industries including banking, the internet, technology, entertainment, cars and consumer goods.
With leaders from companies like Alibaba, Baidu, Microsoft and Amazon, the discussion will be moderated by Henry Paulson, former US treasury secretary and chairman of the institute.
The forum comes at a time of drastic economic change and considerable security tensions between the world's largest economies, which are grappling over difficult issues such as cybersecurity, market access and China's claims to the South China Sea.