It’s unclear if Chinese President Xi Jinping would accept President-elect Donald Trump’s invitation to his January inauguration.
Karoline Leavitt, the incoming press secretary for Trump’s White House, revealed that Xi was invited during an interview on Fox News’ “Fox and Friends” on Thursday.
Yes, that is accurate, and this is an instance of President Trump fostering frank discussions with leaders of nations that are not only our allies but also our rivals and competitors,” she said.
“We witnessed this during his first term,” Leavitt continued. Although he received a lot of criticism for it, it brought about world peace. He will always prioritize the interests of America and is open to speaking with anyone.”
“To be determined,” Leavitt replied when asked if Xi had accepted the invitation, adding that it is “precedent” to invite foreign dignitaries to the inauguration.
But if Xi did show up, that would be unparalleled. A request for comment from NBC News was not immediately answered by the U.S. embassy in China.
According to the president-elect, he has a close relationship with Xi and is respected by the Chinese leader. However, as the president-elect has favored a more assertive stance toward China than the Biden administration implemented, the U.S.-China relationship may shift under a second Trump presidency.
For instance, after launching a trade battle on Chinese goods during his first term, Trump pledged to increase tariffs on those imports. He declared throughout the campaign that he would slap tariffs of at least 60% on Chinese goods, and last month he threatened to impose an additional 10% on Chinese goods unless Beijing took further action to halt the global supply of fentanyl precursor chemicals.
Several opponents of Xi’s administration are also included in Trump’s Cabinet selections, such as Rep. Mike Waltz, R-Fla., for national security advisor and Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., for secretary of state.
Trump’s inauguration on January 20th occurs one day after ByteDance, the Chinese parent company of TikTok, was given a deadline by the United States to sell the social media app or risk being banned in the country. On Wednesday, the Justice Department requested that a U.S. appellate court deny TikTok’s emergency move to temporarily halt the statute.
Prior to changing his mind early this year, Trump had backed the ban.
Trump, who hosted Xi at Mar-a-Lago in 2017, has long praised his tight relationship with the Chinese leader. It’s unclear if the two men have spoken, but Xi congratulated Trump upon his election victory last month.
Last month, Xi assured President Joe Biden that China’s objective of a stable, healthy, and durable China-U.S. relationship remains unchanged and that he would cooperate with the incoming Trump administration.
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