Chinese leader Xi Jinping may not have personally accepted US President-elect Donald Trump’s invitation to his inauguration, but Beijing has taken the rare step of dispatching a top official to join the swearing-in ceremony in Washington.
Chinese Vice President Han Zheng is expected to attend today’s inauguration after meeting incoming US Vice President JD Vance Sunday, in a trip observers say is a significant – but potentially risky – goodwill gesture as Beijing looks to avert major friction with Trump and his incoming cabinet of China hawks.
While Han is the most senior Chinese official to attend a US inauguration, his position of vice president is largely symbolic within China’s political system. True authority lies with the ruling Communist Party’s powerful Politburo Standing Committee, from which Han retired in 2022.
But sending a high-profile official – and one who has previously represented Xi at international events including the coronation of Britain’s King Charles III – signals Beijing’s interest in a reset of fraught relations between the US and China, observers say.
Han’s arrival in the US follows a phone call between Xi and Trump on Friday, where the Chinese leader congratulated Trump on his reelection and called for a new start in relations.
