---
date: 2026-05-13
subject: "Huang joins Trump to Beijing | He Lifeng meets Bessent in Korea | Tencent AI capex hits RMB 37B"
---

![Trump's last-minute Huang invite puts the stalled H200 China license backlog on the summit agenda](https://chinatechdaily.org/static/issues/china-daily/2026-05-13/lead.jpg)

**Trump invited Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang** to join the Beijing delegation in a Tuesday phone call, with Huang boarding Air Force One during the Alaska refueling stop as the H200 China license backlog, approved by Commerce at end-2025 and again in January 2026 but undelivered, moves onto the summit agenda. **Trump arrived in Beijing accompanied** by 16 U.S. business representatives spanning tech, finance and aerospace, including Elon Musk, Tim Cook, and Qualcomm, Micron, Citi, Goldman Sachs, Blackstone, Boeing and Cargill leadership, on the first U.S. presidential state visit to China since 2017. **MFA spokesperson Guo Jiakun welcomed** the visit at the May 13 briefing, saying head-of-state diplomacy provides irreplaceable strategic guidance and that the two leaders will exchange views on major bilateral and global issues on the basis of equality, respect and mutual benefit.


# 1. Top Stories

- **Trump's last-minute Huang invite puts the stalled H200 China license backlog on the summit agenda** — President Trump called Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang on Tuesday U.S. time and invited him to join the Beijing delegation. Huang boarded Air Force One during the Alaska refueling stop, CnBeta reported. The U.S. Commerce Department approved H200 sales to China at the end of 2025 and again in January 2026, but no chips have been delivered because of additional conditions and pending administrative review. China previously accounted for roughly 13% of Nvidia's annual revenue. Council on Foreign Relations researchers questioned Huang's inclusion in the delegation as eroding U.S. strategic advantage. [CnBeta](https://www.cnbeta.com.tw/articles/tech/1562328.htm) [South China Morning Post](https://www.scmp.com/plus/news/china/diplomacy/article/3353415/trump-flies-beijing-nvidias-huang-joins-trip-last-minute?utm_source=rss_feed)

- **Trump arrives in Beijing with a 16-CEO U.S. business delegation spanning tech, finance and aerospace** — The White House announced 16 U.S. business representatives accompanying President Trump to Beijing, including Tesla's Elon Musk, Apple's Tim Cook, and Qualcomm and Micron leadership, Wallstreetcn reported. The finance delegation includes Citi, Goldman Sachs and Blackstone, with Boeing and Cargill representing aerospace and agriculture. Huang's name was added at the last minute after his Alaska boarding, and Trump labeled a CNBC report that said Huang had been uninvited as "FAKE NEWS" on Truth Social. The trip is the first U.S. presidential state visit to China since 2017. [Wallstreetcn](https://wallstreetcn.com/articles/3772164)

- **MFA welcomes Trump state visit, frames U.S.-China head-of-state diplomacy as "irreplaceable strategic guidance"** — Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun told the regular MFA press briefing that China welcomes President Trump's state visit and that head-of-state diplomacy plays an "irreplaceable strategic guiding role" for U.S.-China relations. Guo said the two leaders will exchange views on major issues affecting U.S.-China ties and world peace and development during the visit. China is willing to work with the United States on the principles of equality, respect and mutual benefit to expand cooperation and manage differences, Guo said. The briefing was the first MFA podium framing on the day Trump arrived in Beijing. [Yicai](https://www.yicai.com/brief/103179910.html) [state-affiliated]

- **He Lifeng meets Bessent in South Korea on summit day, framing economic track under "two heads of state" consensus** — Vice Premier He Lifeng, China's lead U.S. economic and trade representative, met Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent in South Korea on May 13 local time for working-level economic and trade consultations, per a CCTV News readout Yicai carried. The two sides used the consensus reached by the two heads of state as the guiding principle and held "frank, in-depth and constructive" exchanges on economic and trade issues of mutual concern. The readout cited the principles of "mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation" and did not specify whether export controls or specific tariff items were on the agenda. The meeting runs in parallel with Trump's arrival in Beijing the same day. [Yicai](https://www.yicai.com/brief/103179990.html) [state-affiliated]

- **Tencent Q1 cash capex totals RMB 37 billion, disclosed as "primarily AI-related"** — Tencent Holdings disclosed in its Q1 2026 results that capital expenditure cash payments totaled RMB 37 billion for the quarter, "primarily to support AI-related investment," CLS reported. Free cash flow for the quarter was RMB 56.7 billion, with net cash from operations of RMB 101.4 billion. Media content payments totaled RMB 5.9 billion and lease liability payments RMB 1.8 billion in the same quarter. The Q1 disclosure was made the same day as Tencent's shareholder meeting. [CLS](https://api3.cls.cn/share/article/2370155?os=web&sv=8.4.6&app=CailianpressWeb)

# 3. AI & Foundation Models

- **Former Alibaba Qwen lead Lin Junyang raises hundreds of millions at $2 billion target for a new AI lab** — Lin Junyang, formerly Alibaba's youngest P10 employee and a lead researcher on the Qwen model line, is raising several hundred million dollars at a roughly $2 billion post-money valuation for a new AI lab, ITHome reported citing The Information. Gaorong Capital and Sequoia China are in talks to participate in the round. Lin departed Alibaba on March 4, 2026, one day after the Qwen 3.5 small-model release. He ranks among China's "Big Model Four" researchers alongside Zhipu's Tang Jie, Moonshot's Yang Zhilin and Tencent's Yao Shunyu. [ITHome](https://www.ithome.com/0/949/883.htm)

- **Phison and MediaTek demo a 20-billion-parameter model on a Dimensity 9500 smartphone via NAND offload** — Phison and MediaTek demonstrated a 20 billion parameter mixture-of-experts model running on a Dimensity 9500 smartphone platform at MediaTek Developer Conference 2026, ITHome reported. Phison's "aiDAPTIV Hybrid UFS" solution dynamically offloads MoE weights to UFS NAND storage to reduce DRAM requirements, fitting a model that previously needed 16GB or more of DRAM inside a 12GB DRAM envelope. MediaTek also released Dimensity AI Agent Engine 2.0 and AI Development Kit 3.0 at the same event. The "world first" claim has not been independently benchmarked against prior Qualcomm and Apple on-device demos. [ITHome](https://www.ithome.com/0/949/859.htm)

- **Tsinghua-affiliated ModelBest open-sources MiniCPM-V 4.6 multimodal model** — ModelBest (Mianbizhineng), a Tsinghua University-affiliated AI lab, open-sourced its next generation on-device multimodal model MiniCPM-V 4.6 with the OpenBMB community and Tsinghua, PingWest reported. The release continues ModelBest's edge multimodal model line aimed at on-device deployment without dependence on datacenter class accelerators. The release targets on-device multimodal efficiency for single-GPU consumer hardware. [PingWest](https://www.pingwest.com/w/313676)

- **Tencent CEO Pony Ma tells shareholders the company has not caught up on AI, will not "grab someone else's turf"** — At Tencent's May 13 shareholder meeting, Pony Ma said Tencent thought a year ago that it had "boarded the ship" on AI, then "discovered the ship was leaking," and now is "standing on it but cannot sit down," Wallstreetcn reported. Ma also said Tencent will not "grab someone else's turf" in AI after past failed attempts. The remarks came at the same shareholder meeting paired with Tencent's Q1 disclosure of RMB 37 billion in cash capex, primarily AI related. [Wallstreetcn](https://wallstreetcn.com/articles/3772184)

# 4. Chips & Semiconductors

- **Wallstreetcn maps Strait of Hormuz blockade exposure for TSMC, Samsung and SK Hynix input costs** — Wallstreetcn mapped how a Strait of Hormuz blockade propagates into TSMC, Samsung and SK Hynix cost stacks via energy and chemical input dependence. About 20% of global LNG flows transit the strait, with Taiwan sourcing nearly 40% of its 2025 LNG from the Middle East per Bloomberg ship tracking data. Roughly 70% of South Korea's crude oil and one-fifth of its LNG transit Hormuz. TSMC CFO Wendell Huang said in early April that some chemical and gas prices may rise, and exposed inputs include helium, bromine, sulfuric acid and chemical solvents. [Wallstreetcn](https://wallstreetcn.com/articles/3772158)

- **Tsinghua Unigroup completes equity restructuring, recasts brand beyond "Huawei alternative" identity** — TMTPost analyzed Tsinghua Unigroup's post-restructuring positioning, framing the relaunched group as "starting fresh" after debt resolution and equity restructuring. The group spans memory chip subsidiary Yangtze Memory Technologies alongside IC design and security chip assets. The new group's strategic direction moves beyond a "Huawei alternative" identity. Tsinghua Unigroup is nearly 40 years old and previously went through aggressive acquisitions, a debt crisis and the current equity restructuring before the relaunch. [TMTPost](https://www.tmtpost.com/7985768.html)

# 10. Strategic Context

- **CAAM forecasts China auto exports above 10 million units in 2026, the day Trump arrives in Beijing** — China Association of Automobile Manufacturers Executive Deputy Secretary-General He Yi told the May 13 TEDA International Forum that 2026 auto exports are expected to exceed 10 million units, ITHome reported citing NBD. Q1 2026 auto exports reached 2.226 million units, up 56.7% year-on-year, with new energy vehicle exports of 954,000 units, up 1.2x year-on-year per CAAM data. China's 2025 full-year auto exports totaled 7.098 million units, with NEV exports of 2.615 million units doubling year-on-year. CAAM is the industry association that issues quasi-official PRC production and export numbers. [ITHome](https://www.ithome.com/0/949/936.htm)

- **Huxiu translates "Wenhua Zongheng" piece arguing U.S. firms gain from competing inside China rather than decoupling** — Huxiu published a translation of a "Wenhua Zongheng" essay arguing U.S. firms gain more by competing inside China's domestic market than by ceding it to Chinese firms. The essay cites a U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis estimate that roughly 70% of U.S. firms' China-produced goods, about $441 billion in 2023, are sold within China. It points to reverse technology spillover, lock-in effects and talent access as U.S. strategic benefits of in-country presence. The translation ran the day Trump arrived in Beijing with a 16-CEO U.S. business delegation. [Huxiu](https://www.huxiu.com/article/4857982.html)