Chinese President Xi Jinping Asks Former Starbucks CEO To Help Repair US-China Relationship
XI JINPING – Chinese President Xi Jinping calls on to former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz to help fix the relationship of the United States and China.
During Trump’s administration, the US and China had an apparent dislike for one another. Previously, outgoing US President Donald Trump had called out China and expressed his disapproval of the country conducting business on US Soil.
As such, Trump had since blocked several major Chinese firms from conducting operations in the U.S. Furthermore, Trump even attempted to ban the popular Chinese video sharing app – TikTok.
Meanwhile, as US-Chinese relations plummet to an all-time-low due to tensions regarding technology and data security, Xi send a letter to Schultz, a rare direct communication from China’s president himself.
According to an article from MSN, Schultz opened the first Starbucks franchise in China back in 1999. Since then, the former CEO frequently visited the country.
Xi wrote to Schultz to lobby for China and play an active role in the promotion of the “Chinese-US economic trade cooperation and the development of bilateral relations“.
Schultz was CEO of Starbucks until 2017 and became chairman until 2018. During his stint as CEO, Schultz led an aggressive campaign in China for Starbucks, turning the country into Starbucks biggest market outside of the U.S.
Back in 2019, the former CEO even floated the idea of running for president as an independent. However, he later dropped this though. As per the article, Xi was responding to Schultz’s letter congratulating him on the “completion of a well-off society“.
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