MGM Resorts International CEO and President Bill Hornbuckle recently posted a significant update on LinkedIn. During his recent visits to Macau and Beijing, he met with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng, with Xu Qifang, Deputy Director of the State Council's Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office, also present. Hornbuckle described the conversation as a thoughtful and constructive exchange, covering topics such as tourism cooperation, cultural exchanges, and viewing travel as a catalyst for broader economic activity. MGM China Executive Director and Chairwoman Pansy Ho, MGM China Holdings CEO Feng Xiaofeng, and MGM Resorts China Hotel Business President Zhou Feng also attended. Zhou Feng also serves as President and Director of Diaoyutai MGM Hotels, a joint venture that is developing high-end hotel projects in several cities across mainland China.
From Macau to the Mainland, How MGM Plays Its China Card
In his post, Hornbuckle specifically mentioned that the discussions included the possibility of extending tourist flows from first-tier cities to a broader region, and how to drive visitor engagement through culture, entertainment, and sports events. MGM conveyed its long-term vision in Macau and mainland China to the Chinese side, emphasizing its commitment to providing high-quality experiences that match the evolving expectations of global travelers.
MGM's setup in Macau goes without saying—its Macau gaming license is one of the group's core assets in Asia. Through the Diaoyutai MGM platform, the group has already established several high-end hotels in mainland China, including in cities like Shanghai, Hangzhou, and Chengdu. The topics of cultural entertainment and sports events were singled out for discussion during the high-level meeting, suggesting that MGM might hope to bring more of its Las Vegas-style integrated resort operating experience—especially in performance, convention, and sports marketing—into the mainland Chinese market. Of course, under the strict prohibition of gambling in the mainland, this experience can only be exported in the form of pure cultural tourism and hotel management.
On the Eve of Trump's Visit to China, The Delicate Positioning of American Gaming Enterprises
The timing of this meeting is quite delicate. Former U.S. President Donald Trump has confirmed that he will meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing from May 14 to 15, marking the first visit to China by a sitting U.S. president in nearly a decade. The trip had been postponed previously due to conflicts between the U.S., Israel, and Iran. For American gaming operators deeply embedded in the Chinese market and holding a gaming license in Macau, the thawing signal of high-level diplomacy undoubtedly has broader positive implications—stable Sino-US relations mean the sustainability of cross-border tourism flows, and also that Macau's gaming industry, which heavily relies on mainland customers, will not suffer from policy disruptions due to geopolitical frictions.
MGM's proactive disclosure of the details of its high-level meeting with Chinese officials is essentially a carefully calibrated PR move. On one hand, it signals to American investors that it has high-level dialogue channels in the Chinese market; on the other hand, it also shows the Chinese side its role as a bridge in promoting bilateral tourism cooperation. In the current sensitive period of Sino-US relations, this kind of pleasing both sides requires a very high level of political acumen. Hornbuckle used a meeting to tell the market: MGM's roots in China are deeper than imagined.
PASA Official Website continues to track the intersection of global gaming enterprises with geopolitics, noting that the presence of American gaming operators in Macau is not only a commercial act but also a barometer of Sino-US economic interactions. The meeting between Hornbuckle and He Lifeng may not immediately translate into specific policy benefits, but in the context of Trump's visit to China, it at least sends a signal: tourism remains the least politically entangled area of cooperation between China and the U.S.
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