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Chinese President Xi Jinping will send a high-level envoy to Donald Trump’s inauguration, in an unprecedented move designed to reduce friction between the countries at the start of the new US administration.
Beijing has told Trump’s transition team that the top official will attend instead of Xi, according to several people familiar with the talks. The envoy will also speak with Trump’s team, several people said.
Trump extended an unusual invitation to Xi to attend his inauguration on January 20 in a sign that he intends to continue the kind of high-level engagement with the Chinese leader that he conducted during his first term in the White House.
Beijing is desperate to ease friction with Washington as it prepares for a possible serious escalation in trade tensions. Chinese officials have clashed with Trump advisers ahead of November’s US election, raising concerns in Beijing that they will be unprepared for any change China.
Several people said Xi might send Han Zheng, the vice president who sometimes fills in for him in ceremonial roles. Another option is Foreign Minister Wang Yi.
One person familiar with the situation said some Trump advisers wanted Cai Qi, a Politburo Standing Committee member who wields far more power than Han or Wang as Xi’s right-hand man.
Another person familiar with the views within the transition team said there was some concern that Trump would be unhappy if the envoy was only at the level of Wang or Han given that he had invited the Chinese leader.
“The Chinese need to send an official of the appropriate level to start the relationship off on the right foot,” the person said.
Wang would not be considered high enough because he was below Cai and Han and was a career diplomat, one Chinese expert said.
The Chinese embassy in Washington did not comment. Trump’s team did not respond to requests for comment.
The arrival of either official would be unprecedented, given that China was previously represented by its ambassador in Washington.
“Trump is probably seen as too unpredictable for Xi to take the domestic risk of attending in person,” said Dennis Wilder, a former White House chief China adviser. “By sending a special envoy of significant status to meetings with Trump and his cabinet, Xi can show that he wants to get on the right foot with the Trump administration without the risk of returning home empty-handed or publicly embarrassed.”
Several people said that in addition to the ceremonial element, the Chinese envoy will also hold substantive talks with the new Trump team.
Beijing is bracing for turbulence with Washington, especially after Trump appointed a number of China hawks to top national security posts.
Mike Waltz, Trump’s incoming national security adviser, and his deputy, Alex Wong, are seen as being very tough on China. Trump also named Republican US Senator Marco Rubio, one of the most vocal China hawks in Congress, as his secretary of state.
Trump said this week that his team is already in contact with Beijing. “We talked through their representatives,” Trump said in an interview on the Hugh Hewitt radio show, when he also blamed China for the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic.
