China is sending Vice President Han Zheng to US President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration on Monday – the first time a senior Chinese leader will witness the swearing-in of a US president.
Trump invited Chinese President Xi Jinping, among other leaders – a break with tradition given that foreign leaders traditionally do not attend US presidential inaugurations.
China said it wanted to work with the new US government to “find the right way for the two countries to get along with each other in the new era”.
But Beijing is also preparing for a Trump presidency that should include new tariffs on the import of Chinese goods and more combative rhetoric – Marco Rubio, a candidate for secretary of state, described China as “the biggest, most advanced adversary America has ever faced.”
As president, Xi never attended the inauguration or coronation ceremony, opting instead to send a representative on his behalf. The Chinese ambassador to the US attended the last two presidential inaugurations, in 2017 and 2021.
Beijing has indeed sent vice presidents to such ceremonies – Han attended the inauguration of Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto in October 2023. And his predecessor, Wang Qishan, was present at the inauguration of Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. 2022 and the President of Brazil Lula da Silva in 2023.
Xi’s decision to send Han to the US is a sign that he “wants to get Trump into a deal-making mode, but [he] he doesn’t want to be a supporting actor on the Trump show on January 20,” said Neil Thomas, China Policy Fellow at the Asia Society Policy Institute.
Other foreign leaders invited to the inauguration are Argentine President Javier Milei and Italian Prime Minister Giorgio Meloni.
Trump spokeswoman Caroline Leavitt told US media that the invitation to Xi was “an example of Trump opening up an open dialogue with the leaders of countries that are not only our allies, but also adversaries and competitors.”
It could also be Trump’s attempt to show the world that “he has the ability to influence Xi’s decision-making and that they have a special relationship,” says Yun Sun, director of the China program at the Stimson Center in Washington.
Earlier reports suggested that some Trump advisers wanted Cai Qi to attend. Considered by many to be Xi’s right-hand man, Cai, 66, sits on the seven-member Standing Committee of the Communist Party’s Politburo, China’s equivalent of the Cabinet.
The Financial Times quoted an unnamed insider as saying that Trump would be “unhappy” if a Chinese envoy was present “only at the level of Han or [Foreign Minister] Wang Yi”. The BBC was unable to verify these claims.
But as vice president, the 70-year-old Han occupies “a very senior role in China’s state system” and the decision to send him “is a favor to Trump,” said Chong Ja-Ian, a non-resident scholar at Carnegie China.
Han, who was named vice president in March 2023, is known as “Number Eight” – the highest-ranking leader after the seven men on the Politburo Standing Committee.
Han also served until October 2022, when Xi began a historic third term in power appointed his most reliable deputies to top jobs.
Before that, Han spent most of his political career in Shanghai, where he was born. In 2007, he served as an aide to Xi while the latter was party secretary in Shanghai, before later taking office himself in 2012.
Foreign affairs were a key focus for him while he was vice president. He led a group to promote the Belt and Road Initiative – China’s key trade and infrastructure project – and headed the steering committee for the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.
But the fact that Han no longer sits on the Politburo Standing Committee may have been a key factor in Beijing’s decision to send him.
“If US-China relations deteriorate from the party’s perspective, Xi and the party will be able to show that they have kept their distance from Trump,” Professor Chong said.
And it helps that Han is not considered part of Xi’s inner circle, according to Mr. To Thomas.
“Xi trusts Han enough to undertake this mission, but Han is not a key ally and could safely blame him if things go badly wrong.”
Additional reporting by BBC Monitoring’s Ian Tang
