China’s Xi to send top-level envoy to Trump’s inauguration, FT reports from Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Chinese President Xi Jinping will send a high-level delegation to his post at the inauguration of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump on Jan. 20, the Financial Times reported on Thursday.

Beijing told Trump’s transition team that the official would attend instead of Xi, whom Trump had invited to attend, the report said, citing multiple people familiar with the situation. He said the envoy also had conversations with Trump’s team.

Xi could send Han Zheng, a vice president who sometimes stands in for him in ceremonial roles, while another option was Foreign Minister Wang Yi, the FT said, citing its sources.

The document cited a person familiar with the situation as saying that some Trump advisers wanted Cai Qi, a member of the Politburo Standing Committee seen as holding far more power than Han or Wang in his right-hand capacity to Xi.

China’s embassy in Washington and Trump’s transition team did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Trump extended the invitation to Xi last month, but experts said it would then be unprecedented for a leader of China, the United States’ main geopolitical rival, to attend a U.S. presidential inauguration and he called it political theater.

Trump said Monday that he and Xi have spoken through representatives and he believes the two leaders will agree on their second term.

Even so, Trump has named numerous China hawks to key posts in his incoming administration, including Senator Marco Rubio as secretary of state, signaling that his China policy could be more confrontational than during his first term.

Trump also said he would impose an additional 10% tariff on Chinese goods unless Beijing does more to stop the trafficking of the highly addictive narcotic fentanyl. He threatened tariffs of more than 60% on Chinese goods while on the campaign trail.

China’s Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday that Beijing attached “great importance” to Trump’s remarks this week and that it was willing to promote “stable, sound and sustainable development of the economy and the Sino-American trade”.