Trump heads to China under the Nvidia scandal's shadow, with a Xi meeting in Shenzhen ahead

United States President Donald Trump travels to the Chinese city of Shenzhen next week for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, where he is due to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping.

The trip comes as Jensen Huang, Nvidia's outgoing chief executive, faces mounting scrutiny over his relationship with Alice Huang, a former Megaspeed executive whom US officials suspect of working for Chinese intelligence. China has denied the allegations. On Thursday, Nvidia announced that Huang would step down as chief executive.

Huang accompanied Trump on his May visit to Beijing. He was a surprise late addition to Trump's delegation, in hopes of unlocking stalled sales of Nvidia's H200 AI chips in China. Now, his place in the next delegation is in doubt.

As founder and chief executive of Nvidia, Huang pushed Washington to ease restrictions on the sale of advanced chips to China, arguing that wider use of US technology would help Washington hold onto its lead in AI development.

In December 2025, Trump approved sales of the H200, Nvidia's second-most powerful chip, to China, with 25 percent of proceeds to be paid to the US government. He did so despite opposition from China hawks in both parties. Despite that decision, shipments were low because of slow import approvals from the Chinese government in a bid to support domestic chipmakers.

Trump has stood by Huang throughout his recent personal scandal, calling him an 'honourable guy'.

Analysts say Huang's removal from Nvidia's board and the scandal leading up to it are unlikely to significantly affect relations between Washington and Beijing. Steve Okun, a Singapore-based geopolitical analyst, told Al Jazeera the relationship is 'a stalemate at best'.

Gabriel Wildau, managing director at the advisory firm Teneo, said Trump 'shows no sign that he intends to disrupt the current US-China rapprochement'. But he warned that the president may face new pressure from Congress and hawkish voices inside his administration.

Carsten Holz, an expert on the Chinese economy at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, said Trump 'would not seem to have a coherent China policy and therefore his position in the upcoming talks in Shenzhen is hard to predict'. Huang's personal affairs 'will be of little relevance' to China-US relations, he said.

Lian Jye Su, chief analyst at the technology research group Omdia, said a tough US line on AI and China was not Trump's alone, calling it 'one of the rare political consensuses domestically across the aisle'. Trump, he said, 'will do whatever he can to protect his contribution and legacy on this matter'.

On Wednesday, Democratic Senators Elizabeth Warren and Chris Coons asked Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and White House chief of staff Stephen Miller to preserve all records on Nvidia's chip exports to China. 'This incident raises significant concerns about the federal government's ability to effectively enforce our export controls and protect our national security,' the senators wrote.

The news website Axios reported that Lutnick had held up a planned crackdown on firms suspected of funnelling Nvidia chips to China. Meanwhile, procurement notices seen by the AFP news agency show that a Chinese university linked to the country's defence establishment bought Nvidia H200 chips through a third party in September and October.

Beijing has rejected the spy claims. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said on Thursday that 'the US side should stop fabricating such 'spy' narratives as a pretext for imposing a technological blockade'. But Mao also said China is willing to work with the US to implement the consensus reached by the two leaders.

Shares in Moore Threads, MetaX and Cambricon, China's leading makers of graphics processors, jumped nearly 10 percent on Thursday.

Okun expects the pressure to build next year. He said Congress could pass the Remote Access Security Act, aimed at stopping Chinese firms from reaching advanced chips through the cloud. The Department of Commerce, he added, could put export controls on Megaspeed or require licences for advanced chips sent to countries such as Singapore and Malaysia. If that happens, it will strain the US-China relationship in 2027, he said, adding 'but that's not going to happen next week'.