Trump not expected to raise Alice Huang case with China's Xi, US officials say
Summary
U.S. President Donald Trump is not expected to discuss the Alice Huang case with Chinese President Xi Jinping when they meet next week in Shenzhen, China, on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum. U.S. officials said the investigation is a national security matter that Washington is not prepared to discuss with Beijing. Nvidia’s independent directors hired Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz to investigate reports about Jensen Huang’s relationship with Alice Huang and suspicions that she spied for China. Beijing has denied she is a spy, and the Justice Department said it has reached no conclusion about her affiliation with the Chinese government.
Key Facts
- Trump’s meeting with Xi is part of a four-day trip to Asia.
- The independent members of Nvidia’s board announced on Tuesday that they had hired Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz to conduct the investigation.
- Alice Huang was a former top executive of Nvidia customer Megaspeed International, and she and Jensen Huang are not related.
- Jensen Huang apologized on Sunday for being unfaithful to his wife and disappointing the company, but did not name Alice Huang in his statement.
- Reuters said it had not independently verified whether Alice Huang was working on behalf of the Chinese government.
US President Donald Trump speaks alongside Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, left, during a meeting with technology executives about artificial intelligence, in the East Room of the White House in Washington, DC, Sept. 29. AFP-Yonhap
WASHINGTON — US President Donald Trump is not expected to discuss with Chinese President Xi Jinping the case involving a businesswoman whose ties to former Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang raised national security concerns, US officials said on Friday.
Trump is set to meet with Xi next week on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Shenzhen, China, as part of a four-day trip to Asia. The meeting will come just days after Jensen Huang resigned as Nvidia CEO on Thursday, capping a spectacular fall from the chip industry's heights.
Though semiconductors have been a major flash point in US-China relations, the US president is not expected to raise the latest issue with Xi for now, the officials said,
"When it comes to some of these national security matters and examinations and investigations that are going on in the US, it's probably not something that we're going to read the Chinese in on at this moment," one senior administration official told reporters.
A second US official added: "I don't expect the president to raise it, the Alice Huang issue."
The officials were responding to a reporter's question about whether Trump would raise the allegations involving Alice Huang with Xi.
On Tuesday, the independent members of Nvidia's board said they hired Wall Street law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz to conduct an independent investigation after the New York Times and Wall Street Journal reported on Jensen Huang's relations with the businesswoman, Alice Huang, as well as US authorities' suspicions that she was spying for China.
Beijing has denied she is a spy. Alice Huang could not be reached. Reuters has not independently verified whether Alice Huang was working on behalf of the Chinese government. The Justice Department has said it has not reached any conclusion about Alice Huang's affiliation with the Chinese government.
Jensen Huang apologized in a statement on Sunday for being unfaithful to his wife and for disappointing the company. His statement did not specifically name Alice Huang, a former top executive of Nvidia customer Megaspeed International. The two are not related.
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