Report: Trump Invites Xi Jinping to Inauguration

Facts

• US Pres.-elect Donald Trump has invited Chinese Pres. Xi Jinping, among other foreign dignitaries, to the presidential inauguration in January 2025, CBS News has reported citing multiple official sources.^[1]
• While it isn't yet clear if Xi has accepted Trump's invitation for the Jan. 20 swearing-in, the president-elect said last week that he's recently "had communication" with Xi, though didn't share any further details.^[2]
• Trump, who has appointed multiple China hawks to be part of his upcoming administration, reportedly referred to the Chinese leader as someone he "got along with very well." The Chinese embassy in Washington has not yet commented on the matter.^[3]
• Since 1874, no foreign head of state has attended the US presidential inauguration, though it has been attended by foreign envoys and ambassadors. Trump last met Xi in June 2019 in Japan, on the sidelines of a G20 summit.^[4]
• In recent weeks, Trump has met with world leaders such as Hungary's Viktor Orbán, Canada's Justin Trudeau, Italy's Giorgia Meloni, Argentina's Javier Milei, France's Emmanuel Macron, and Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelenskyy.^[5]
• Trump has been talking tough on China since before he won the election, especially by threatening significantly higher tariffs on Chinese imports. His election victory also comes amid an impending US ban on China-based social media platform TikTok.^[6][7]

Sources: ^[1]CBS, ^[2]South China Morning Post, ^[3]Reuters, ^[4]The Japan Times, ^[5]New York Post, ^[6]Newsweek and ^[7]Washington Examiner.

Narratives

• Pro-Trump narrative, as provided by Dotdot News. Trump's invitation to Xi hints at a complex diplomatic dance. Despite surrounding himself with China hawks, Trump offers a paradoxical approach — aggressive yet willing to negotiate. His unique foreign policy style suggests an opportunity for engagement, potentially disrupting the Cold War narrative and offering a nuanced path forward in US-China relations that defies conventional diplomatic expectations.
• Pro-establishment narrative, as provided by South China Morning Post. Xi is unlikely to attend Trump's inauguration. Historically, no Chinese head of state has personally graced a US presidential transition, instead sending representatives. The intricate diplomatic choreography and Trump's transitional uncertainties make Xi's attendance improbable, and reflect ongoing, unresolved complexities in US-China relations.