China’s Xi likely to decline Trump’s inauguration invitation

Trump’s incoming press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, confirmed on Thursday that Trump extended an invitation to the Jan. 20 ceremony. The Chinese Embassy in Washington said it had no information to provide. But experts don’t see Xi coming to Washington next month.

“Can you imagine Xi Jinping sitting outdoors in Washington, D.C., in January at the feet of the podium, surrounded by hawkish members of Congress, gazing up at Donald Trump as he delivers his inaugural address?” said Danny Russel, who previously served as assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs.

Russel, now vice president for international security and diplomacy at the Asia Society Policy Institute, said Xi would not allow himself to “be reduced to the status of a mere guest celebrating the triumph of a foreign leader — the US president, no less.”

Yun Sun, director of the China program at the Stimson Center, a Washington-based think tank, said Beijing will play it safe when there’s no protocol or precedent for a Chinese leader to attend the inauguration of a US president.

“I don’t think the Chinese will take the risk,” Sun said. There could be risks in the guest list, for example, Sun said, noting that Taiwan’s top diplomat in the US attended the swearing-in of President Joe Biden in 2021. Beijing considers Taiwan to be Chinese territory and has repeatedly warned the US that it is a red line not to be crossed.

Should Trump slap tariffs as high as 60% on Chinese goods upon taking office as he’s threatened, Xi would look like a fool if he had chosen to attend, and that’s unacceptable to Beijing, Sun said.

Rather, Chinese officials are known for their obsession with the dignity and security of their leader when traveling abroad, said Russel, who has negotiated high-level summits with the Chinese. “They have always demanded that any leader trip to Washington be treated as a full ‘state visit’ with all the bells and whistles,” Russel said.

MNA