Xi ‘unlikely’ to attend Trump’s inauguration after surprise invitation, experts say

Chinese President Xi Jinping is unlikely to attend the inauguration of US President-elect Donald Trump, it has been reported, a day after the unusual invitation was extended to him.

No world leader has ever made an official visit to see a new American president sworn in, according to US State Department historical records.

At the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday, Trump hinted that he had been “thinking about inviting certain people to the inauguration”.

“And some people said, ‘Wow, that’s a little risky, isn’t it?’” he added. “And I said, ‘Maybe it is. We’ll see. We’ll see what happens.’ But we like to take little chances.”

Later that day, Karoline Leavitt, his incoming White House press secretary, confirmed on Fox News that Trump had invited Xi to attend the 20 January event.

“It’s not necessarily a bad thing to invite foreign leaders to attend. But it sure would make more sense to invite an ally before an adversary,” said Jim Bendat, a historian who has written a book on presidential inaugurations.

After introducing 25% tariffs on some Chinese goods during his first presidency, Trump has recently vowed to punish China economically once again.

In late November, weeks after being elected for the second time, the president-elect promised to raise existing tariffs by 10% if China did not stop the flow of drugs — including the chemicals needed to make the synthetic opioid fentanyl — into the US.

In response, Chinese Embassy spokesperson Liu Pengyu said that “the idea of China knowingly allowing fentanyl precursors to flow into the United States runs completely counter to facts and reality”.

As well as his war of words with China, Trump has nominated to his cabinet two China hawks, Marco Rubio and Mike Waltz, whom he wants to serve as secretary of state and national security adviser respectively.

China experts have said President Xi will not take up Trump’s invitation to his inauguration.

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

Similarly, Yun Sun, director of the China programme at the Stimson Centre, a Washington-based think tank, said it was not in Xi’s interests to accept.

“I don’t think the Chinese will take the risk,” she said.