Chinese dictator Xi Jinping meets Elon Musk and dines with Apple boss Tim Cook and FedEx chief at $40,000-per-seat soiree
- U.S. business leaders are facing backlash for attending the $40,000 per-head dinner on the sidelines of the APEC Summit in San Francisco Wednesday night
- The soiree included half-hour remarks from ‘guest of honor’ Chinese President Xi – and the welcome reception featured a performance from Gwen Stefani
- Elon Musk stopped by for cocktail hour to meet Xi but didn’t stay for the dinner
- READ MORE: Biden says he still considers Xi a ‘dictator’
A dozen U.S. business leaders are facing criticism after attending the swanky $40,000-per-seat gala President Joe Biden hosted in San Francisco with Chinese President Xi Jinping as the ‘guest of honor.’
Among the top leaders at the dinner surrounding the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting with Xi were Apple’s Tim Cook and Executive Vice President of Boeing Stanley Deal.
Tesla, SpaceX and X CEO Elon Musk also made an appearance ahead of the gala for cocktail hour drinks where he rubbed elbows with the Chinese dictator amid rising tensions with the west. He departed before dinner began, according to multiple reports.
Musk was not on the list of corporate attendees and representatives at the gala, according to a program of the event obtained by DailyMail.com.
Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff also greeted Xi during cocktail hour but didn’t stay for dinner.
Also not on the program but in attendance for Wednesday night’s pricey dinner were executives from Pfizer, Nike and FedEx. Former California Gov. Jerry Brown also paid the premium to attend.
The soiree was held at the Hyatt Regency in San Francisco, California and had a price tag of $40,000 per seat.
Many U.S. business leaders, including Apple’s Tim Cook (pictured), attended the $40,000 per-head soiree on the sidelines of the APEC Summit in San Francisco on Wednesday night. The dinner included remarks from Chinese President Xi Jinping
Other unlisted business leaders that attended the dinner were executives with Nike, Pfizer and FedEx. Elon Musk stopped by for cocktail hour to rub shoulders with Xi, but didn’t stay for dinner
The ballroom held 34 rose and orchid-laden tables – but were numbered 1-39 in order to skip number 13 as well as any number with a four, since in Chinese that sounds similar to the word ‘death.’
FULL LIST of business leaders attended the $40k dinner with Xi Jinping?
From the program obtained by DailyMail.com:
Apple CEO Tim Cook
Blackstone Stephen Schwarzman
BlackRock CEO Larry Fink
Boeing Executive Vice President Stanley Deal
Mastercard Chairwoman Merit Janow
Amway CEO Milind Pant
Honeywell Executive Chairman Darius Adamczyk
Broadcom President and CEO Hock Tan
Las Vegas Sands casino and resort Chairman and CEO Robert Goldstein
KKR investment co-CEO Joseph Bae
Gilead Sciences Chairman and CEO Daniel O’Day
Fulgent Genetics Chairman and CEO Ming Hsieh
Others who attended according to multiple reports:
FedEX CEO Raj Subramaniam
Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla
Those who went to cocktail hour, but not dinner:
Tesla, SpaceX and X CEO Elon Musk
Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff
Guests had the option of a coffee-crusted Black Angus steak or a vegetable curry with jasmine rice and toasted pistachios, the New York Times notes.
Biden’s team is really rolling out the red carpet for Xi and other APEC leaders.
The welcome reception for the summit featured a music performance by Gwen Stefani and a moment where Biden welcomed California Gov. Gavin Newsom on stage.
Musk’s appearance comes the same night he was forced to backtrack on an earlier endorsement of an antisemitic post where he wrote: ‘You have said the actual truth.’
He clarified two hours later that calls for ‘a Jewish genocide’ were ‘unacceptable to any reasonable person.’
Xi, the leader of a country thought to be America’s biggest rival, delivered remarks for more than half-an-hour during the dinner where a room of more than 300 executives and officials listened attentively.
The CCP leader was introduced by Chubb Insurance CEO Evan Greenberg.
Xi assured there was an enduring friendship between the U.S. and China that could not be overlooked by recent turmoil – specifically rising tensions in regards to the CCP pushing that it has claim over the independent island nation of Taiwan.
The dinner comes on the sidelines of the APEC Summit, which is an annual meeting of 21 Pacific nations that account for approximately half of all global trade.
Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo spoke at the dinner and thanked. Xi for a productive meeting earlier on Tuesday as Chinese officials gathered with Biden and his deputies.
‘We weren’t going to solve all of the military tension between their army and ours here in a four-hour meeting,’ National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said on Good Morning America on Thursday when asked about progress made at the meetings the day prior.
Xi delivered half-hour remarks at the soiree, where the dictator was listed as the ‘guest of honor’
The welcome reception for APEC included a musical performance from Gwen Stefani on Wednesday
Stefani hugs President Joe Biden during the APEC Summit
U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo also spoke at the dinner to about 300 executives and officials
The House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party released images of the program from the Wednesday night event along with the post: ‘List of elite American executives dining with genocidal communist ‘Guest of Honor’ Xi Jinping last night for $40,000 in San Francisco.’
‘Enemies of the State!’ lawyer and self-declared ‘Deep State Marauder’ Ivan Raiklin wrote in response to the post on X, formerly known as Twitter.
He urged House Speaker Mike Johnson to subpoena and direct the arrest of the business leaders ‘for aiding and abetting America’s existential threat.’
Corporate sponsor representatives at the dinner included on the program were: Apple CEO Tim Cook; Blackstone’s Stephen Schwarzman; BlackRock asset management firm CEO Larry Fink; Boeing’s Executive Vice President Stanley Deal; Mastercard Chairwoman Merit Janow; CEO Milind Pant of health and beauty multi-level marketing company Amway; Honeywell Executive Chairman Darius Adamczyk; semiconductor and infrastructure software company Broadcom’s President and CEO Hock Tan; Las Vegas Sands casino and resort Chairman and CEO Robert Goldstein; KKR investment co-CEO Joseph Bae; Gilead Sciences Chairman and CEO Daniel O’Day; and Fulgent Genetics Chairman and CEO Ming Hsieh.
‘The number one question for us is: are we adversaries, or partners?’ Xi asked during his remarks.
‘China is ready to be a partner and friend of the United States,’ he assured while explaining that seeing each other as competitors would lead to misinformed policy.
But the American public isn’t convinced, with one X user posting, ‘Boycott them all,’ of the companies with representatives at the gala on Wednesday.
Pictured: President Joe Biden, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her husband Paul Pelosi attend a welcome reception for leaders attending the APEC Summit in California
Xi spoke about some light-hearted topics like Ping-Pong and pandas – after the pandas at The National Zoo were flown back to China, ending after more than five decades in another sign of U.S. souring relations with the Communist regime.
But the dictator also spoke on how Americans and Chinese worked together during World War II to battle the Japanese.
Stephen Orlins is president of the National Committee on United States-China Relations, which is one of the groups that sponsored the event on Wednesday. He noted, according to the Times, that Xi prepared three versions of his speech for Wednesday’s soiree.
After events with President Biden earlier in the day, Xi had picked the friendliest one.
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