'Powerful' Mystery Woman Spotted Beside Elon Musk and Tim Cook at Xi Jinping State Dinner: Who is Zhou Qunfei?

Zhou Qunfei, the founder of Chinese manufacturing giant Lens Technology, drew widespread attention online after she was seated between Elon Musk and Tim Cook during a state banquet hosted by Xi Jinping for Donald Trump in Beijing.

Images from the dinner circulated across X, TikTok and Chinese social media platforms, where some users referred to Zhou as a 'mystery woman' and questioned why she had been given such a prominent seat alongside two of the world's best-known technology executives.

Zhou is the chair of Lens Technology, a major electronics supplier that has worked with companies including Apple and Tesla. Her appearance at the banquet highlighted the close business ties that continue to connect American technology firms with Chinese manufacturers despite ongoing political and trade tensions.

Who Is Zhou Qunfei?

Zhou was born in Hunan province in 1970 and left school at the age of 15 before moving to Shenzhen to work in factories during China's manufacturing expansion.

In 1993, she started a small business producing glass for watches with support from relatives in Shenzhen's Bao'an district. The company later expanded into electronics components before becoming Lens Technology.

Lens secured a major breakthrough in 2007 when it joined Apple's supply chain as a supplier of cover glass for the original iPhone. As iPhone sales grew worldwide, Apple became one of the company's biggest customers.

The success of Lens Technology helped make Zhou one of China's wealthiest self-made entrepreneurs after the company listed on Shenzhen's ChiNext exchange in 2015. Lens later completed a Hong Kong listing in 2025.

Why Zhou Was Seated Beside Musk And Cook

The banquet took place on 14 May during Trump's two-day visit to China focused on trade, investment and economic cooperation.

Chinese state broadcaster CCTV showed Zhou seated between Cook and Musk during the formal dinner attended by senior Chinese officials, American executives and business leaders from major manufacturing and electronics companies.

According to Chinese media reports, other business figures present included Lei Jun, Liang Rubo and executives linked to Lenovo, Hisense, Haier and Comac.

From Factory Worker To Tech Billionaire

Zhou built Lens Technology into one of China's largest electronics suppliers after leaving school as a teenager to work in factories in Shenzhen.

She formally founded Lens Technology in 2003 after expanding her original watch-glass business into electronics manufacturing. The company later grew into a major producer of components used in smartphones, computers, wearable technology and electric vehicles.

According to Fortune, Lens Technology raised about $608 million (about £455 million) through a secondary listing in Hong Kong in 2025 as the company pursued overseas expansion. Chinese media also reported that Lens Technology's Shenzhen-listed shares rose nearly 6 per cent following the Beijing banquet, giving the company a market value of about 180.6 billion yuan (about £19.9 billion).

Zhou's rise from factory worker to billionaire executive has frequently been highlighted in Chinese business media as one of the country's most prominent self-made success stories.

Online Buzz Highlights China's Business Leaders

Much of the online reaction focused on how little international audiences knew about executives running companies behind globally recognised technology products.

While figures such as Musk and Cook remain highly visible internationally, many social media users outside China said they were unfamiliar with Zhou and Lens Technology before the banquet images circulated online.

The attention surrounding the dinner also showed how closely state visits between the United States and China continue to be watched online, particularly when they involve prominent business and technology figures.