House GOP wants answers on CEOs paying $40,000 to dine with Xi Jinping

House Republicans want to know more about American CEOs shelling out tens of thousands of dollars to dine with the leader of China.

Reports have surfaced that business moguls including Elon Musk, Citigroup leader Jane Fraser, Exxon’s Darren Woods, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, and others are paying $40,000 to sit at Chinese President Xi Jinping‘s table on the sidelines of the APEC summit in San Francisco.

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That doesn’t sit well with Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI), chairman of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party.

“It is unconscionable that American companies might pay thousands of dollars to join a ‘welcome dinner’ hosted by the very same CCP officials who have facilitated a genocide against millions of innocent men, women, and children in Xinjiang,” Gallagher wrote to the American organizers of the dinner, which takes place Wednesday night.

Xi is meeting with President Joe Biden as well, and Gallagher has traveled to San Francisco to make his case for a tougher stance toward China.

The National Committee on U.S.-China Relations and the U.S.-China Business Council are hosting a banquet for Xi following the meeting with Biden, which the CEOs will attend. Gallagher has requested documents from Stephen Orlins, who leads NCUSCR, and Craig Allen, who leads USCBC, about the particulars of the dinner.

“USCBC and NCUSCR’s decision to profit from selling access to the senior-most CCP official responsible for the Uyghur genocide raises serious questions about whether these organizations are playing responsible roles in the bilateral relationship,” Gallagher wrote.

He has asked for four pieces of information before Nov. 21:

• A complete list of individuals and organizations that have purchased tickets to the CCP dinner.
• A list of individuals and companies who have paid the $40,000 fee to sit at the table with Xi.
• A breakdown of how profits from the CCP dinner will be divided between USCBC, NCUSCR, and others.
• What steps USCBC and NCUSCR have taken to defend human rights in China and prevent the genocide of Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities in Xinjiang.

According to Bloomberg, the CEOs aim to warm the increasingly chilly trade environment between the U.S. and China, with the outlet saying they want to “get back to business.”

That’s in line with the mission of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, which was founded in 1989 with the mission of promoting free and fair trade.

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But with everything else going on in China, Gallagher and other Republicans are saying the country must make changes if it wants to do more business with the U.S.

“Despite repeated concessions from Washington over the past year, Beijing is taking no action to stem the flow of deadly fentanyl, reduce tensions in the Taiwan strait, or stop its unprecedented campaign of espionage against the U.S.,” Gallagher said in a video shot before the Golden Gate Bridge. “It’s time for a firmer diplomatic approach.”