Han Zheng: Chinese leader attends Trump’s inauguration?

As president, Xi never attended the inauguration or coronation ceremony, choosing instead to send a representative on his behalf. China’s ambassador to the US attended the last two presidential inaugurations, in 2017 and 2021.

Beijing has sent a vice president to such ceremonies, though – Han attended the inauguration of Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto in October 2023. And his predecessor, Wang Qishan, attended the inauguration of Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr in 2022 and Brazilian President Lula da Silva in 2023.

Xi’s decision to send Han to the US is a sign that he “wants to get Trump into deal-making mode, but (he) doesn’t want to be a supporting actor at Trump’s event on January 20,” said Neil Thomas, a fellow in Chinese politics at the Asia Society. Policy Institute.

Other foreign leaders invited to the inauguration included Argentine President Javier Milei and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.

Trump spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt told US media that the invitation to Xi was “an example of Trump creating an open dialogue with leaders of countries that are not only our allies but our enemies and competitors”.

It could also be Trump’s attempt to show the world “he has the ability to influence Xi’s decisions and they have a special relationship”, said Yun Sun, director of the China program at the Stimson Center in Washington.

Previous reports suggested that some of Trump’s advisers wanted Cai Qi to attend. Widely seen as Xi’s right-hand man, the 66-year-old Cai sits on the Communist Party’s seven-member Politburo Standing Committee, China’s equivalent of the cabinet.

The Financial Times quoted an unnamed insider as saying that Trump would be “happy” if the Chinese envoy was present “only at the level of Han or (Foreign Minister) Wang Yi”. The BBC was unable to verify this claim.

But as vice president, the 70-year-old Han has “the most senior role in the Chinese state system” and the decision to send him “was a courtesy to Trump”, said Chong Ja-Ian, a non-citizen scholar at Carnegie. China.