Senators say they hope to meet with Xi Jinping during China trip

WASHINGTON — A bipartisan group of U.S. senators hope to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping during a trip to China this month, two of them told NBC News, as a whirl of diplomatic activity builds expectations for a meeting later this year between the leaders of the world’s two largest economies.

“I don’t think that that’s clear yet whether it will happen,” Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, said of a potential meeting between the senators and Xi. “We want to meet with a number of the officials there as well as the American business community there as well, and we would like to meet with President Xi.”