Trump Ally Senator Visits China Ahead of U.S.-China Summit, Tours Tech Companies

[Financial News] Ahead of the U.S.-China summit, U.S. Senator Steve Daines, a close ally of President Donald Trump, visited Hangzhou and Guangzhou, two major hubs of China's advanced industries.
According to Hong Kong's Ming Pao and other outlets on the 1st, Daines, along with U.S. Ambassador to China David Perdue and U.S. Consul General in Shanghai Christian Marchant, visited Hangzhou in Zhejiang Province from June 26 to 29 and Guangzhou in Guangdong Province on the 29th.
Daines is one of the Republican Party's most prominent pro-Trump figures. During the U.S.-China trade war in Trump's first term, he served as an informal mediator. In May, ahead of the Beijing U.S.-China summit, he also led a bipartisan Senate delegation that included Democratic lawmakers to China.
Geng Shuang, vice chairman of the Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries and a former deputy U.N. ambassador, accompanied Daines on the trip.
According to social media accounts run by Zhejiang Province's foreign affairs office, Daines visited Zhejiang University, the alma mater of Liang Wenfeng, founder of Chinese artificial intelligence startup DeepSeek, as well as Hangzhou-based bio-AI company Unher Tech (Bota), AI smart glasses maker Rokid, space computing technology company Diweier Space Technology (StarVision), and AI company Qunhe Tech (Manycore).


Daines and his delegation later visited EHang, a drone manufacturer in Guangzhou, on the 29th. EHang is one of the companies commercially operating unmanned electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft in China.
In a press release, EHang said Daines met with Huazhi Hu, the company's founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), then took a ride on the EH216-S, EHang's flagship eVTOL model, to experience its fully autonomous flight technology firsthand.
According to social media posts from UAV Network, a Chinese drone-related online platform, Daines praised EHang's technology and mature operational capabilities. He said, "I very much look forward to having the opportunity to experience EH216-S flights in the United States in the future," and added, "We welcome EHang's active efforts to expand into international markets, including the United States and the Americas, and to explore the commercialization of the global market for unmanned eVTOLs."
Because he also visited China as a kind of advance team before the summit in May, this trip may also be part of preparations for Xi Jinping's visit to the United States. The Chinese AI and drone companies he visited are at the heart of the strategic competition between the two countries.
Recent U.S. sanctions on China have focused on advanced technologies such as AI and drones, while China has responded using its own technological capabilities and supply chains. That has led to speculation that the summit this month could include discussions on managing competition between the two countries.


[email protected] Lee Seok-woo, international affairs Reporter