Trump not expected to raise Alice Huang case with Xi, US officials say

US President Donald Trump is not expected to raise the case of businesswoman Alice Huang with Chinese President Xi Jinping at their planned meeting next week, two US administration officials told reporters on Friday.

The leaders are due to meet on 19 November on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Shenzhen. Semiconductors have been a major source of tension between the two countries, but the officials’ comments concerned the Alice Huang case specifically; they did not rule out discussion of other chip-related issues.

One official referred to national security matters and investigations under way in the US, saying these were probably not matters the administration would share with China at this point. A second said: “I don’t expect the president to raise it, the Alice Huang issue.”

The New York Times and Wall Street Journal have reported on Alice Huang’s ties to Jensen Huang and US authorities’ suspicions that she was spying for China, Reuters reported. Beijing denies she is a spy, and the US Justice Department says it has not reached a conclusion about her affiliation with the Chinese government. The two Huangs are not related.

Jensen Huang resigned as Nvidia’s chief executive, president and board member on 12 November. The company appointed its finance chief, Colette Kress, as interim CEO. Earlier, he apologised for being unfaithful to his wife, without naming Alice Huang, and said Nvidia’s board had initiated an independent investigation into national security concerns raised in news reports.