President Donald Trump arrives at Beijing Capital International Airport in Beijing, China, on Wednesday, May 13, 2026, for a two-day summit with China’s leader, Xi Jinping. The summit between the leaders of the United States and China in Beijing this week represents a pivotal moment for a global economy that has been upended by war and trade tension over the past year. (Kenny Holston/The New York Times)
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The White House put out a list of 17 of the United States’ most influential business leaders and executives who were accompanying President Donald Trump on his two-day visit to Beijing — but only two were women: Jane Fraser, chief executive of Citi, and Dina Powell McCormick, president of Meta.
The delegation of U.S. officials tells a similar story. Among the Trump advisers pictured greeting China’s leader, Xi Jinping, on the red-carpeted steps of the Great Hall of the People are Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and a group of others, almost exclusively men.
The women on Trump’s team in Beijing hold communications or protocol roles, or are family members. They include Monica Crowley, an ambassador and the White House’s chief of protocol; Anna Kelly, a White House spokesperson; Natalie Harp, a close presidential aide; Margo Martin, a communications adviser; and Lara Trump, a daughter-in-law of the president.
First lady Melania Trump, who accompanied Trump to China in 2017, during his first presidential term, is not on this trip. Brett Ratner, who directed “Melania,” an Amazon documentary on the first lady, is part of the delegation. Ratner has faced allegations of sexual harassment and misconduct from multiple women, which he has denied.
Lynn Martin, president of the New York Stock Exchange, later posted on social media that she was also in attendance as part of the U.S. business delegation. She was not on the list released by the White House that detailed the 17 people joining Trump in China.
The other 15 business leaders who were on that list, all men, included Tim Cook of Apple, Elon Musk of Tesla and Jensen Huang of chip giant Nvidia. When Trump traveled to Beijing in 2017, he brought along 29 executives of U.S. companies — most of whom were men.
In photos of Beijing’s delegation greeting Trump, few women are seen in Xi’s entourage. China’s top diplomat, Wang Yi, and Xi’s right-hand man, Cai Qi, are among the Chinese officials. There are no women on China’s 24-member Politburo, the policymaking body.
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This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
By Emily McGarvey/Kenny Holston
c. 2026 The New York Times Company
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