By Ju-min Park
BEIJING, May 15 (Reuters) – GE Aerospace CEO Larry Culp was seen on Friday in Beijing leaving a meeting at the headquarters of China’s powerful state planner, the National Development and Reform Commission, according to a Reuters witness.
Culp’s visit to the NDRC building comes after U.S. President Donald Trump told Fox News that following talks in Beijing with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping on Thursday China had agreed to order 200 Boeing jets, its first purchase of U.S.-made commercial jets in nearly a decade.
As Boeing’s primary engine supplier, GE Aerospace also stands to gain from the purchase agreement, even if it fell far short of the roughly 500 jets the markets had expected, causing both companies’ shares to fall.
Culp, along with Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg, are part of a business delegation of more than a dozen U.S. conglomerate executives accompanying Trump on his first state visit to China in almost a decade.
GE Aerospace did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the purpose of Culp’s NDRC visit.
(Reporting by Ju-min Park; Writing by Eduardo Baptista; Editing by Shri Navaratnam and Muralikumar Anantharaman)
