Opinion | U.S. CEOs on the Chinese Menu

Whatever the merits of this week’s summit between President Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping, there was no reason for U.S. business leaders to trip over themselves to get in on the action. Yet there they were Wednesday evening, kowtowing to Mr. Xi at a dinner that delivered China a propaganda coup and the CEOs an embarrassment.

The dinner, for which ticket prices ranged up to $40,000, sounds like some affair. Mr. Xi received a standing ovation for taking the stage before he said a word. He garnered more applause—from an audience including Apple’s Tim Cook to executives from Qualcomm and Boeing—for delivering such memorable platitudes as “there is plenty of room for our cooperation” between the U.S. and China.