Apple, Google, IBM CEOs head to China with trade war brewing

China is the world's biggest market for smartphones and a crucial customer base of Qualcomm's chips for mobile phones

Leaders of Apple Inc., Google and other US technology giants head to China this weekend to pursue a familiar goal: To do more business in the world’s most populous nation. The effort has had mixed results, at best, in the past.
 
With a trade war brewing between the world’s two largest economies, the goal has gotten loftier still.
 
Tim Cook, chief executive officer of Apple, Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google, and Ginny Rometty, head of IBM, are scheduled to attend the China Development Forum, an annual gathering that helps Western corporations build relationships with the country’s government officials.